There is a new Bitcoin City Energy Research and Development: Noise. In Sortland, a Norwegian municipality, locals are waging a war against bitcoin miners to prevent further development of bitcoin mining. Their latest complaint about PoW mining is that it is loud.
Not only is it enough for Bitcoin miners in Sortland to use 100% renewable energy, creating jobs, they even use waste heat from the proof-of-work process to dry out lumber and algae for local businesses; They should do it quietly.
Sortland (red) in the furthest corners of Norway. Source: Google
Kjetil Hove Pettersen, CEO of local firm KryptoVault, explained that this could be another case for the media targeting Bitcoin. He explained the situation to Cointelegraph:
Negative voices usually get the most attention in the media; It does not reflect all local opinions.”
Pettersen detailed that network owners are actually happy to host bitcoin miners — because bitcoin miners help balance networks (as it appeared recently in Texas) — and that there is a “political or social cost to talking about in today’s environment.” According to Petersen, the false narratives created by the media are not new:
“[…] the story that we are suppressing other industries by using (the skeptics use the word ‘waste’) a lot of energy, when in fact the opposite is true. Sometimes we are accused of inflating energy prices, which is not true either.”
“Northern Norway has a large electricity surplus due to low domestic demand and limited capacity,” explained Arcane Research analyst Jaran Millrod and regular contributor to Cointelegraph. In northern Norway, where Sortland is located, electricity costs are very low and there are actually many abandoned hydroelectric plants.
Pettersen listed the benefits of bitcoin mining as increasing revenue on local municipal power grids while maintaining grid balance; lower overall network fees to consumers; job creation; Generating income for the Norwegian treasury by forcing bitcoin miners to pay taxes and ultimately contributing to Norway’s national trade balance. And that’s without mentioning the direct result of mining Bitcoin to secure the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Human Rights Director Alex Gladstein visited Kryptovaault and spoke about “positive externalities”. Source: Twitter
Pettersen acknowledged that the bitcoin industry has “a lot of work to do to tell our story and dispel myths and misconceptions.” Bitcoin provides a lifeline to many people around the world, especially in the global south, but the narrative that Bitcoin mining requires more energy from neighboring Finland continues to gain media attention.
On this topic: Seven times as many Bitcoin miners have made the world a better place
As for Petersen, for Millrod it is all about telling stories and novels. Briefly summarizes: “Municipalities in Northern Norway should value bitcoin mining as a way to recycle electricity locally.” He completed:
The bitcoin mining business creates local jobs and increases municipal revenues because they often own local power generation companies.”
Unfortunately, accounts distorting bitcoin mining and energy consumption continue to make headlines. Noise may be the following.
