How this greenhouse and fish farm operation is fueled by bitcoin mining

Bruce Hardy, a Manitoba-based entrepreneur, has sought to repurpose the heat produced by his bitcoin mining rig to produce edible plants and fish that are suited to the temperatures generated by cryptocurrency mining equipment. Mr. Hardy owns and operates 30 mining rigs, which are housed in a 20,000-square-foot building situated in the Rural Municipality of St. Francois Xavier, Manitoba. The heat produced by the miners is then circulated throughout the building, and used to grow edible plants and fish.

Approximately 800 Arctic Char are raised in a large fish tank located on the first floor of the building. The water that the fish are raised becomes highly rich in nitrates – and thus comprises an excellent plant fertilizer. With the press of a button, Mr. Hardy is able to remotely pump the nitrate-rich water to feed the lettuce, basil, and sprouted barley fodder which is grown aquaponically on the floor above the fish. “It’s all connected, much like Earth,” Mr. Hardy told local news. Mr. Hardy is also the president of Myera Group – a company that seeks to develop innovative and sustainable systems for food production.

After initially investing in large-scale air conditioning to cool his mining rig, Mr. Hardy states that he realized the heat produced by mining could be diverted to be used for agricultural production. “When bitcoin came, they were an excellent proxy for what a server could do in terms of emulating heat, and whether we could use that heat for agricultural purposes,” said Mr. Hardy.

Canadian provinces such as Manitoba are increasingly being seen as an enticing locating for cryptocurrency companies to establish operations in, owing to the province’s cheap and plentiful hydropower. “Hydro is one of our best assets in the province,” said Mr. Hardy, “If we can take our energy and use it here in Manitoba, we value-add that energy, and we can do all sorts of great things,”

Aside from offering cheap commercial hydroelectricity, Manitoba experiences among the lowest temperatures of major cities in North America – which has recently garnered the attention of major cryptocurrency mining companies seeking to flee the regulatory uncertainty presently associated with China. According to Manitoba Hydro, the company has received over 100 inquiries from cryptocurrency miners in the past three months about specific sites, including from North American brokers representing Chinese investors.

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Japan’s GMO Plans to Sell 7nm Bitcoin Mining Boards Using Token Sale

Japanese internet giant GMO has announced a plan to sell its “next-generation mining boards,” equipped with 7nm ASIC chips through an initial coin offering (ICO) next year.

GMO Planning ICO

Japanese conglomerate GMO Internet announced on Wednesday that its bitcoin mining business will launch an initial coin offering (ICO) next year. The purpose of the token sale is “to sell next-generation mining boards,” the company wrote, stating that:

We will issue tokens as a method to buy next-generation mining boards.

Japan currently has no specific law for regulating ICOs. However, some existing laws may apply to token sales. For example, some of them may be classified as sales of securities and subject to the current securities laws.

“We will consider properly the laws and regulations that are applicable to us under the current legislation including Payment Services Act and the Financial Instrument and Exchange Act,” GMO stated in its announcement. “And [we] will be conscious of the protection of token purchasers and stakeholders’ profits when designing the token sale.”

At the end of September, GMO’s bitcoin exchange subsidiary, GMO Coin, became one of the first eleven bitcoin exchanges to be granted registration by the Financial Services Agency (FSA).

GMO’s Bitcoin Mining Business

GMO is currently developing the 7nm ASIC chip in collaboration with a partner that has semiconductor design technology. The project was first unveiled in September. According to Masatoshi Kumagai, GMO Group president, the company plans to invest 10 billion yen in the next few years on its mining operation as well as the research and development for 7nm, 5nm, and 3.5nm mining chips.

In addition to operating a mining center in Northern Europe, the company will also launch a cloud mining business as well as sell its mining boards equipped with the 7nm mining chips. “Each card will be able to mine at a projected 8 terahashes per second or more with a power consumption of only 300 watts,” Kumagai detailed.

“It will be possible to reduce power consumption compared to the existing mining machines with the same performance, and achieve a computational performance of 10TH/s per chip,” GMO detailed on Wednesday, adding that:

We will launch the mining based on ready-made mining computers by December 31, 2017, which will lead to the full-scale entry into the bitcoin mining business.

“After the launch of the bitcoin mining business, we will also sell our own next-generation mining boards,” GMO’s announcement reiterated.