16.02.2025

The mining company bought a power plant in Pennsylvania. What will they do to her?

Mining companies continue to look for solutions to the problem of supplying the Bitcoin network with electricity, despite the fact that cryptocurrency is increasingly accused of negative impact on the environment.

Pennsylvania-based Stronghold Digital Mining recently acquired the entire Scrubgrass power plant in Kennerdell. At the moment, it can provide about 1800 devices for mining BTC with a resource , but they plan to expand this limit to 20 thousand by 2022.

We checked the current data: the earnings of the miners of the main cryptocurrencies in terms of capitalization are really huge. For example, yesterday Bitcoin miners earned the equivalent of $ 39.6 million, while the corresponding figure on the Ethereum network was $ 44.53 million.

Here is a graph of two metrics in 2021.

Ethereum and Bitcoin mining profitability

At the same time, the total income of ETH miners in September amounted to $ 2.22 billion. You can join the mining of ethers on the 2Miners pool . The latter supports different mining models, languages ​​and shares detailed statistics.

Ethereum mining profitability by month

What cryptocurrency miners do

Bitcoin mining is the most costly of any crypto asset on the market due to the high complexity of the entire process. Recall that the complexity of mining grows in proportion to the hash rate – the total computing power of all ASIC miners in the network. Therefore, it is not surprising that miners’ appetites are increasing every year.

In turn, complexity is needed so that the production time for one block is approximately the same interval. Thus, the rate of issue – that is, the release of a new cryptocurrency – will remain at a previously known level. Note that the last bitcoin will be mined around 2140. And this is not a big deal for the cryptocurrency network.

The dynamics of the difficulty of Bitcoin mining over the past year

Electricity, as their main resource, should be supplied at the lowest possible tariff. How to achieve the most optimal solution to such a problem? The purchase of the power plant – which is what Stronghold Digital Mining did. According to Techspot , the acquired Scrubgrass will incinerate coal waste – the remains of industrial use of the fossil. This raw material is harmful to the environment due to the outflow of aluminum, iron and manganese into the earth and water bodies.

At the same time, mining critics considered irony in this statement and felt that coal operations would not be environmentally friendly. However, we believe that it makes no sense for a company of this size to lie about their activities. Especially considering that the purity of mining Bitcoin and other coins has really become a trend since the spring of 2021. Recall that then the mining industry was criticized by Elon Musk, which, among other things, ended in a market collapse in mid-May.

Scrubgrass Power Plant

Stronghold management plans to organize waste collection from landfills and return the cleaned land to the state through the Pennsylvania Department of the Environment (DEP). By now, the company has managed to claim the rights to remove waste from more than a thousand acres of land. However, the combustion of utilized coal will still cause direct harm to the environment through the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Therefore, it is really possible to argue with the details of what is happening here.

Another mining company, Compass Mining, took a different path. In the summer, it became known that she had partnered with a nuclear power startup Oklo, according to Decrypt . Its creators are preparing to build so-called «microreactors» – relatively small stations that will generate electricity from nuclear waste.

Oklo microreactor building concept

In addition, it is worth noting the partnership between the energy company Talen Energy and the mining company TeraWulf Inc. The purpose of the deal was the construction of a huge mining center in Pennsylvania, the size of four football fields. The initiative, called Nautilus Cryptomine, «will not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and will receive all necessary licenses from regulators.»

As you can see, the ban on Bitcoin mining in China really shook the industry. Now, many miners who have moved their equipment to other regions of the world are looking to optimize their business and at the same time meet environmental safety standards.

We believe that this trend will have a very positive impact on all the fundamental advantages of the main cryptocurrency as a whole. In addition, the reputation of digital assets will be less and less associated with waste, environmental pollution and other negative phenomena. It should be noted that the scale of the <a href=» pool 2Miners «> miners’ activity is impressive – apparently, they really have enough money.

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