The African Bitcoin Conference 2022 has attracted big names. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has revealed his intention to get involved in bitcoin mining in Africa.
ABC 2022
Jack Dorsey did the shiftbut also Ray Youssef, CEO of the P2P exchange Paxful, very present in Nigeria, Sébastien Gouspillou, CEO of the mining company BBGS or even Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike.
Block’s CEO has teamed up with Stillmark to invest $2 million in mining company Gridless. The word Gridless means ” without electricity “.
Wise decision when you know that Africa is full of renewable energies and that bitcoin is democratizing there at high speed:
Unfortunately, this energy potential is under-exploited. The hydraulic capacity of the continent exceeds the 470 gigawatts for only 38 GW installed. To be compared with the 650 GW installed in Asia. Or 254 GW in Europe and 380 GW on the American continent.
The bitcoin mining industry can be a significant source of revenue to accelerate the electrification of Africa. A power line costs nearly $30,000 per km. This electrification takes time.
So BTC miners can be a significant financial windfall while waiting for homes to be fully connected to new hydropower plants.
Africa is a veritable Eldorado for minors. Only three countries have inaugurated hydropower plants in the past year: Zambia (150 MW), Uganda (24 MW) and Burundi (8 MW). But others are coming.
According to theOUCHmore than 600 million people, or 43% of the continent’s population, do not have access to electricity.
Countries like Ghana, host of the African Bitcoin Conference (ABC), Kenya and Rwanda want all of their countries to be electrified by 2030. But it will take attracting investment.
Bitcoin is helping to electrify Africa
Currently, 17% of Africa’s electricity is generated from hydropower. This share should increase to more than 23% by 2040. However, the IEA estimates that it will take an investment of 25 billion dollars per year to achieve this.
Not to mention that there are a myriad of small power plants that already exist, but cannot deliver their energy due to lack of power lines. These plants are exactly the target of the Gridless company.
The miner settles on small isolated power plants to see if this additional source of income could finance the construction of power lines.
“We have been building internet infrastructure in Africa for years. We realized that it was impossible to have a modern economy without internet connectivity AND electricity”Mr. Hersman told CNBC.
“We realized that bitcoin mining solves a major problem for developers of small power plants. We can buy their energy no matter where they are. The consequence is an acceleration of electrification in Africa”he added.
Plants profiting from the sale of their unused electricity generation capacity can also reduce costs for the end user. CNBC reports that at one of Gridless’ sites in Kenya, the hydropower plant has lowered the price of electricity by 30%.
Despite attempts to instrumentalize climate change to smear bitcoin, the facts are there…
Sooner or later, most bitcoin mining will be done on very inexpensive renewable energy sources, financing in the process the energy transition and electrification without incurring debt.
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