In the South Asian nation of Bhutan, situated in the Himalayas, the government has set up the largest state-owned cryptocurrency mining operation in the world in secret, according to a new report in Forbes.
In its new report, Forbes revealed the Bhutanese government quietly spent millions of dollars to assemble a state of the art bitcoin-mining capability.
Utilizing satellite imagery from Planet Labs, Satellite Vu, and Google Earth, as well as sources with knowledge of Bhutan’s investments in crypto-technology, the outlet was able to uncover how the government has hidden mining units and data center cooling systems deep in forests and mountainous terrain throughout the nation. Still other images trace high-capacity power lines and transformers carrying power from Bhutan’s hydro-electric plants to the various mining facilities.
Forbes wrote, “Bhutan has been quietly transformed into a crypto Shangri-La with its government dedicating land, funding and energy to operations like these, which it hopes will avert a looming economic crisis.”
Possessed of an abundance of hydroelectricity, the remote mountainous nation historically sought to profit off its electricity by selling its excess to India. However in recent years the kingdom has seen its power demand rise, as its crypto-mining operations have grown. This year, the nation has massively boosted imports of electricity, purchasing $20.7 million worth of electrical power so far. Government officials have said that they expect the bill for this winter to increase to $72 million, with five months of imports needed to cover the nation’s demand.
Following a disastrous loss of tourism revenue due to the Covid pandemic, Bhutan, is now betting that it will be able to sustain its economy in the future off the mining of cryptocurrency.
Reportedly, government officials have never publicly disclosed information about the locations or scope of the government cryptocurrency mining operations. Previously they did comment on utilizing digital asset investments following an earlier report in which Forbes covered the kingdom’s multimillion dollar crypto portfolio, which came to light after crypto-lenders BlockFi and Celsius went bankrupt.
Prior to the revelation about Bhutan, the only country known in the world to operate state-owned crypto mines was El Salvador in Central America. There, the country utilizes several renewable energy sources to power its mining sites, and has even made bitcoin legal tender.
