YPF Lightone of the subsidiaries of the Argentine oil company, announced the start-up of an electrical generating plant dedicated exclusively to cryptocurrency mining using gas “flare” or venting, which is the residual gas from operations, generally released into the atmosphere, from Dead cow.
It’s about the Bajo del Toro Thermal Power Plant, located in the province of Neuquén. With an installed power capacity of 7 MW and backed by 1 MW of additional back-up, The energy produced is used directly for cryptocurrency mining on the same site. To carry out this project, The state-owned company partnered with Equinor, a Norwegian oil company.
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Regarding the mining process, Genesis Digital Assets Limited (GDA), with headquarters in Houston and Dubai, is the one involved in the operation. This company, which already manages twenty data centers Worldwidehas given the green light for the installation of a data center within the plant in Rincón de los Sauces, Neuquénwith 1200 cryptocurrency mining equipment.
“This initiative allows reduce greenhouse gas emissions, make efficient use of energy and monetize the flare gas, which would otherwise have been vented to the atmosphere. The gas is reused to generate electrical energy that is destined for a new industry like bitcoin mining, highly energy demandingwithout affecting the availability of the country’s electrical energy network and contributing to a sustainable solution“YPF indicated in an official statement.
Martin MandaranoCEO of YPF Luz, stated: “In 2022 We were the first Argentine company to generate electricity for cryptocurrency mining from flare gas, an innovative solution in line with YPF’s energy transition needs.”
These statements are related to the fact that Tecpetrolthe oil company belonging to Techint, is immersed in a similar project at its Los Toldos 2 depositalso located in Vaca Muerta.
For its part, Abdumalik Mirakhmedovexecutive president of GDA, said: “We believe that Argentina is an important country for Bitcoin mining, given its abundance of energy sources and business-friendly environment. The opening of our first data center in South America It is an important step in our geographic diversification efforts“.
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What is Bitcoin mining?
Bitcoin mining is a set of essential procedures to validate and record transactions on the network blockchain blockchain of this cryptocurrency.
In essence, this complex process It resembles gold mining, but in a digital context– “Miners” compete to solve complex cryptographic algorithms to add new blocks to the chain. In return, They receive newly generated bitcoins as a reward.
These operations ensure the stability and security of the networkso the miners receive financial compensation for their workalthough it requires the use of specialized computer equipment and entails high energy consumption.
The reward that miners receive varies depending on network status: In April the Bitcoin Halving took place, the issuance of BTC in each new block decreased from 6.25 to 3.125. As a result, The mining reward was also halved.
