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Bitcoin Mining Facility With Room for 50,000 Rigs Set to Launch in Kazakhstan
August 21 2020 - 12:24PM
CoinDesk

The 180 megawatt facility that will be able to host 50,000 bitcoin mining rigs is set to launch sometime in early September. ...

https://ih.advfn.com/stock-market/COIN/BTCUSD/crypto-news/83118407/bitcoin-mining-facility-with-room-for-50-000-rigs

Bitcoin Mining Facility With Room for 50,000 Rigs Set to Launch in Kazakhstan
Aug 21, 2020 at 16:24 UTC
Updated Aug 21, 2020 at 18:04 UTC

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-mining-facility-rigs-kazakhstan

One of the largest mining facilities in the world – with output to rival a small power station – is set to open for business in the mining-friendly country of Kazakhstan in September.

* Mining facility operator Enegix told CoinDesk Friday it will be
ready to open its 180 megawatt (MW) data center to mining pools at
the start of September.

* Based in Ekibastuz, near the Russian border, the facility can host
up to 50,000 mining rigs, according to director Dmitriy Ivanov.

* Assuming full capacity with Bitmain's AntMiner S19 series or
MicroBT’s WhatsMiner M30, that would represent mining power of about
5-6 EH/s – approximately 4% of bitcoin's current hashrate.

* Enegix already operates two mining facilities but the Ekibastuz site
is its largest – it will employ upwards of 160 people, including
engineers, electricians and security personnel.

* The facility would handle as much electricity as needed to power
180,000 U.S. homes.

* Construction on the facility began in August 2019 and has reportedly
cost $23 million, according to a series of slides shared with
CoinDesk.

* The center will get its electricity straight from the Kazakhstani
grid, which itself will source the power from a coal-fired station
in Russia. Ivanov said it was the cheapest source of power
available.

* Electricity in Kazakstan is cheap and plentiful, with much of the
country's surplus currently exported to neighboring countries.

* This makes the country well-placed to become a global center for
mining facilities, said Ivanov. National power stations rarely
operate at full capacity so there's room for facilities to expand,
and more to come online to use the power.

* Unlike China, where electricity prices change depending on the
season, costs at the Ekibastuz facility will stay much the same
year-round.

* Keen to attract business and foreign investment, the government has
created a taxation framework to help further legitimize
cryptocurrency mining in the country.

* Indeed, Cambridge University's Bitcoin Mining Map shows Kazakhstan
now ranks fourth in the world for hashrate distribution – up from
sixth in Q3 2019.

* Although clients will be free to mine any cryptocurrencies they
wish, Enegix anticipates – as with their existing data centers –
that most will mine bitcoin.

* Representatives from mining companies ViaBTC, F2Pool, Canaan, and
Innosilicon have already visited the site, Ivanov said.

Paddy Baker is a London-based cryptocurrency reporter. He was previously senior journalist at Crypto Briefing. Paddy holds positions in BTC and ETH, as well as smaller amounts of LTC, ZIL, NEO, BNB and BSV.