on the crypto
One of the largest mining plants in the world - with production that could rival a small power plant - will open in September in Kazakhstan. The government is taking steps to further encourage and legitimize the mining of cryptocurrencies in the country, creating a significant inducement for the mining sector.
The project
The operator behind the construction of the mining facility, Enegix, said on Friday it would be ready to open its 180 megawatt (MW) data center for mining pools in early September. According to director Dmitriy Ivanov, the facility built in Ekibastuz, near the Russian border, will be able to accommodate up to 50.000 mining platforms.
Assuming the full capacity of the plant with Bitmain's AntMiner S19 series or MicroBT's WhatsMiner M30 series, a mining power of about 5-6 EH / s could be reached - about 4% of the current bitcoin hashrate - here the quotation in real time. Enegix already operates two mining plants, but the Ekibastuz site will be the largest: it will employ more than 160 people, including engineers, electricians and security personnel. The facility will run enough electricity to power 180.000 US homes.
Expansion prospects
Construction on the facility began in August 2019 and reportedly cost $ 23 million. The center will receive electricity directly from the Kazakh grid, which in turn will supply power from a coal-fired station in Russia.
Ivanov said it was the cheapest energy source available. Electricity in Kazakhstan is cheap and plentiful, with much of the country's surplus currently being exported to neighboring countries.
This puts the country in a good position to become a global center for mining facilities, Ivanov said. National power plants rarely operate at full capacity, so there is room for facility expansion and others are also available online to use energy.
Unlike in China, where electricity prices change according to the season, costs at the Ekibastuz plant will remain virtually unchanged throughout the year.
Kazakhstan fourth in the world for Bitcoin mining
Recently, the government created a tax framework to help further legitimize cryptocurrency mining in the country, keen to attract foreign business and investment. In fact, the University of Cambridge's Bitcoin Mining Map shows that Kazakhstan is now in fourth place in the world for hashrate distribution, up from sixth in the third quarter of 2019.
While customers will be free to mine any cryptocurrency they wish, Enegix predicts - similarly to their existing data centers - that most will mine bitcoin. Representatives of the mining companies ViaBTC, F2Pool, Canaan and Innosilicon have already visited the site, Ivanov reported.
