Cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of energy and this is nothing new. Based on this reality, there are those who believe that this type of activity cannot be safely implemented in Brazil until the country’s energy deficit is corrected. But that’s not how it works. In fact, mining is an activity with a great capacity to encourage the launch of projects in this ambit.
Being a new economic segment, many people still do not understand that mining is completely agnostic in relation to the location of the energy source. This means that mining could be used to power hundreds of thousands of projects that have excellent generation capacity, but distance from transmission lines prevents them from being built.
There are hundreds of PCH (Small Power Plants) that have an excellent generation capacity, but are far from the consumption centers and require a connection line of tens of kilometers that can often be more expensive than the plants themselves.. As the cryptocurrency mining is done at the generation source, it makes the construction of the PCH feasible, since it ensures that the energy produced will be consumed from the first minute of generation. Thus, the connection of the electricity generated there with the national network may be immediately viable or, in the worst case scenario, be done in the future in a more planned way and with the cost diluted over time.
John Blount believes that while mining is independent of location, it is also independent of source type. Electricity production can be hydraulic or wind. The important thing is that there is no great intermittency, as occurs with solar energy, which is not generated at night. In this case, a battery system or even a net metering system would have to be built, consuming the credits generated during the day, or even a microgrid with different types of arrays in the same place. Unfortunately, this latter system faces costs, taxes, and other issues.
“Considering Brazil’s aptitude for renewable energies, mining will undoubtedly be a great promoter of projects that were previously out of the question, helping to create infrastructure less dependent on common lines of financing.John says.
Another positive impact of mining in the Brazilian market will be in the quality of the workforce required for the activity. Like any other industry that works with computers, machines, printed circuits, among others, mining demands specialized professionals. We are talking about skills related to the areas of electricity, information technology, maintenance, generation, etc. For John, in all of them there is a lack of labor in Brazil and there will surely be a need to create courses and schools to train these new professionals.
“Together with the professionals, we should also see the creation of specialized maintenance centers and, in the future, even ASIC factories here in the country. For those who are not used to these acronyms, ASICs are computer equipment based on integrated circuits or chips, developed to perform very specific functions, as in the case of mining.“, he adds.
It also states that, for these positive impacts to happen, it is important to create clear rules on the mining sector in the country. The first step was taken with Gecex eliminating the import tax on mining machines. The generation of employment and income occurs when the rules are clear and the industry can grow knowing what its role is.
In relation to this he states: “We are talking about long-term investments, such as in infrastructure and electricity, which pull various sectors and generate a very large number of indirect and direct jobs.”.
On an international level, China used to be a major mining company and recently a company announced investments in this area in Argentina. There is no doubt that mining can bring immense economic gains to Brazil. More than that, it is a crucial field if this country really wants to place itself at the forefront of the global economy.
Having part of the hashrate (computing power of the Bitcoin network) can be a way to demonstrate economic strength. This is because thousands of dollars are used to create infrastructure and a chain of jobs that extends through the sectors involved, from civil construction to electrical component factories. Like any nascent industry, the initial challenges will be huge, but once the supply chains develop, we should see a very positive impact on the sectors involved.
“Brazil has potential. Fostering the cryptocurrency mining market is an excellent opportunity to increase our generation capacity without totally depending on public financing for the works beforeJohn concludes.
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