Ukraine completes project to build a cryptocurrency mining farm. It has the particularity of operating on nuclear energy.
Ukraine’s Energy Ministry previously issued a tender – through state-owned Energoatom – for the establishment of a massive cryptocurrency mining center. A major project that will take place in Rivne, in the north-west of the country. And it was Kyiv Energy Construction Company that met the authorities’ demands. The company will receive funding to the tune of 8.92 million Hryvnia, or $ 317,620, according to official documents. The Ukrainian construction giant was in competition with the Ukrenergobudproek company. But the latter’s offer was too high. For reasons of transparency, Kyiv Energy Construction Company must detail the progress of the work. The end of the work is scheduled for August 2022.
At this time, we do not know the size of the mining center. On the other hand, we know that a nuclear power station – built in the late 1970s – with a capacity of 3 gigawatts will power it.
A giant mining farm for Bitfury?
Bitfury presents itself as a major player in the technology of storage and transmission of data without a control organ – or simply blockchain. Note that the concept of cryptocurrency is based on this protocol. The Dutch group started out as an equipment manufacturer and then went into mining. Bitfury had the third largest Bitcoin mining infrastructure in 2017.
In October 2020, Energoatom signed a memorandum of understanding with a subsidiary of Bitfury, an agreement that local media said would spur the construction of the giant nuclear-powered mining farm. Indeed, the cryptocurrency mining giant could transfer its operations to the new facility.
Illegal farms at nuclear power plants
In May 2020, Ukraine’s energy ministry commissioned state-owned Energoatom to study the feasibility of a mining center in their nuclear power plants. The project is of interest to the government for two reasons: to improve tax revenues and to use surplus nuclear power.
This project was signed as the Ukrainian authorities face the resurgence of illegal mining farms. In 2019, the government’s secret services, for example, discovered clandestine cryptocurrency mining equipment at a nuclear power plant in the south of the country.