Crypto hours is a Russian initiative in honor of Earth Hour on March 24 is looking to make the world’s cryptocurrency miners switch off their rigs for an hour.
Switching Off For Ecological Awareness
As various local news outlets report, the so-called ‘Crypto Hour’ (‘Kripto Chas’) is being organized in order to highlight the ecological impact of mining and encourage the industry to develop more eco-friendly methods of minting coins.
The event comes at a time when mining operators continue to seek out cheap electricity to capitalize on the burgeoning global mining trend – sometimes causing conflict in doing so.
As Bitcoinist reported, initially successful but now problematic new mining schemes in New York State contrast with the outright hostile reception from local lawmakers across the border in Canada this year.
“The aim of the protest is making the Russian government and those of other countries create an ‘ecological mining’ map… and also to stimulate investment in such ecological mining projects,” Pyotr Dvoryankin, founder of digital asset investment network CryptoLife and organizer of Crypto Hour told Rambler News Service.
We also want to create systems allowing reuse of heat generated from the mining process and develop more energy-efficient distributed ledger technologies.
Mining Recycling: More Than ‘Cryptomatoes’?
As mining becomes increasingly intensive as an industry, incorporating an increasing number of lay consumers in the form of cloud-mining and other products, it is slowly spawning an offshoot industry dedicated to putting its byproducts to good use.
Mining heat is already the starting point for a host of offerings, most recently including a mass vegetable growing effort dubbed ‘Cryptomatoes,’ which uses a newly-developed device for harnessing that heat.
Rambler adds that the Bitcoin network alone uses 50 megawatts of electricity every year to process transactions, with that rate set to increase dramatically by 2020 if current trends continue.
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