With all its advantages, cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether have a significant drawback – large energy costs. The Foundation of cryptocurrencies is tons of computer hardware that performs cryptographic hashing algorithms around the clock. These computers can be huge mining farms in rural China, as well as small home installations, but they are all equally energy-intensive. Ethereum platform, for example, is already using more energy than the island of Cyprus, where about 1.2 million people live. In turn, the bitcoin network at the projected growth rates by 2020 will consume more electricity than the whole of Denmark.
The most attractive in cryptocurrencies is how serious a problem they represent for traditional, public financial institutions. However, because of mining, their impact on the environment is little better than cash. Analysts believe that they can use the symptoms of climate change – gusts of wind and storms – as a potential source of energy for funding with cryptocurrency research in the field of climate.
Oliver wind turbine consists of a nearly two-meter wind turbine mounted on a tripod, which is connected to a computer installed in a weatherproof box. This computer consists of a Mini-ITX motherboard, one Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics processor, an Intel I3 processor, a 250 GB hard drive, an Arduino microcontroller, and a 4G dongle that connects your computer to the Internet.
This setup costs about $ 1,700, but Oliver noticed that the price can be reduced by half if you order components at least for 25 of those mining machines. The amount of ZCash that an installation can mine does not depend directly on the wind speed. The wind turbine only charges two 12-volt batteries – thus the unit has a stable power supply.
The equipment is designed for 1100 hashes per second, which is about 5–6 dollars per ZCash per day at the current rate.
It is unlikely that several hundred dollars will significantly affect the fight against climate change, but according to the artist, this initial installation was proof of the concept that wind mining machines are possible and profitable in the future. He estimated that the wind farm on the basis of one large wind turbine with a capacity of 50 kW, which will include 164 GPU and a server connected to the Internet at the current rate would pay for itself within 5 months, getting ZCash for in the amount of 26 000 US dollars per month.
