Step Inside the World's Most Unusual Crypto-Mining Computer Farms

TechnologyStep Inside the World's Most Unusual Crypto-Mining Computer Farms From a former aluminum plant to an abandoned factory, bitcoin mines are popping up in the most unexpected places

By Jessica Cherner

December 8, 2021

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A cooling chamber in a cryptocurrency mining center.Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images

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Arguably the most coveted entity in the world is money. After all, it makes the world go ‘round. But money—in any form—is only valuable if enough people use it, it’s an acceptable form of payment, and society believes that it’s as valuable now as it will be later. Enter cryptocurrency, a form of digital gold that relies on a decentralized blockchain. Cryptocurrency is on its way to becoming mainstream because, above all else, it’s convenient: There are no middlemen (banks and brokers) that take a cut of the transaction nor delays in the actual transfer of funds. But cryptocurrency—especially bitcoin, which Satoshi Nakamoto, the entity that developed it, describes as “purely peer-to-peer” electronic money—doesn’t just happen. It’s mined using very powerful machines on enormous computer farms. And these highly industrial sites are making their way into formerly faded industrial towns on the outskirts of major cities.

The former Kizelovskaya State District Power Plant in Russia has been converted into a bitcoin mining farm.Photo: Maxim Kimerling/Getty Images

China used to be home to about two thirds of all crypto mining, but after the country of 1.4 billion eventually banned the practice in favor of more environmentally sustainable industries, mining didn’t fade into the background; it simply moved. And one of the most robustly expanding areas for bitcoin mining is in New York, where the state’s northern and western sleepy cities are experiencing an unexpected revival focused on cryptocurrency.

A few miles northeast of the highly visited Niagara Falls, a bitcoin mining operation has taken over the state’s last working coal plant, another computer farm opened in Massena’s former aluminum plant, and in Owego, scrap metal dealer, restaurateur, and philanthropist Adam Weitsman is managing his own mining site in a collection of shipping containers. Not only are these companies boosting formerly slow economies, but they’re taking advantage of the widely available hydroelectric power and wealth of nearby power plants—two elements that massively contribute to crypto mining.

A bitcoin mining plant in Québec, Canada.Photo: Lars Hagberg

Though New York is relatively new to the crypto mining scene, other parts of the world capitalized on it early. Enigma, owned and established by Genesis Mining, for instance, opened within a complex of nondescript metal buildings less than two miles away from Iceland’s Reykjavik airport. And it’s one of the biggest bitcoin mining operations in the world. It may seem like a random place for a large-scale computer farm, especially considering how popular the area is to tourists, but the frigid city actually makes for a perfect spot for crypto mining. Iceland has an impressive abundance of water and heat trapped underground—both of which are excellent sources of hydroelectric and geothermal power.

Since its inception more than a decade ago, bitcoin has been under quite a bit of fire for guzzling an almost appalling amount of energy—more globally than all of Argentina in one year. But harnessing alternative energies for the mining process is making bitcoin way more attractive to countries like El Salvador, which is building an entire city based on volcano-powered bitcoin mines.

El Salvador is the first country to build a bitcoin city using volcanic energy. Photo: Alex Peña/Getty Images

Another international city whose unforgiving weather conditions are proving to be quite useful is Moscow, where the country’s largest bitcoin mine, in ​​Bratsk, is producing a lot of energy cheaply and effectively. The data center, BitRiver, is near the world’s largest aluminum plant and takes advantage of the readily available power supply. Not to mention, the freezing temperatures are ideal for data centers’ equipment of this scale to run efficiently. That said, these specific conditions aren’t exactly a prerequisite for a massive computer farm to run successfully. Other mines exist in Washington, which boasts the cheapest power in the U.S., Linthal, Switzerland, and Amsterdam.

The biggest—and perhaps the only—requirement for a cryptocurrency-specific mine is a lot of space, which is why these computer farms haven’t started popping up in densely populated cities like New York and London. But the key to expanding mining around the world is environmentalism. Crypto mining requires an excessive amount of energy, so carrying out the industrial activity in a way that doesn’t hinder the world’s efforts to lessen the negative impacts of human activity on the environment is perhaps the only way to do it.