U.S. company devises method to use coal waste to power crypto

Stronghold Digital Mining

21/03/2022 19:41

KENNERDELL, Pa., March 21 (Reuters) - The vast amounts of
electricity needed to mine bitcoin has ignited a debate about
whether the energy behind the operation is worth the potential
environmental costs.
    But one company in western Pennsylvania believes that they
have found a way to put crypto mining to work to clean up their
community. 
    Stronghold Digital Mining  SDIG.O  uses waste left behind by
decades-old coal power plants to generate electricity that
powers hundreds of supercomputers working to mine bitcoin. 
    Bitcoin, the world’s largest peer-to-peer digital currency,
is issued through a process called mining, which requires
computers to solve complex puzzles in exchange for the virtual
currency. Powering those computers involves large amounts of
electricity – in fact, more electricity is used annually to
create bitcoin than is used in the entire country of Finland.
    "The bitcoin mining network itself is the largest
decentralized computer network in the world, and it's power
hungry, so co-locating bitcoin mining and a power plant makes a
lot of sense," said Greg Beard, chief executive officer of
Stronghold. 
    Coal ash, the byproduct left over from burning coal to
produce electricity, can leach into groundwater and pollute
waterways, and contains heavy metals considered to be
carcinogens. 
    Stronghold collects coal ash from a nearby mine and
processes it at a waste coal processing facility. After the coal
ash is sorted and crushed, it goes to a boiler building where it
is burned to generate the electricity to power the company’s
bitcoin mining operation. 
    "I think this is a perfect niche for crypto," said Bill
Spence, co-chairman of Stronghold Digital Mining. 


 (Reporting by Dan Fastenberg and Eric Cox in Kennerdell,
Pennsylvania; writing by Hannah Lang in Washington; Editing by
Mark Porter)
 ((Hannah.Lang@thomsonreuters.com;))