Virtual digital money or lights in homes? – Daily newspaper

Virtual digital money or lights in homes?  – Daily newspaper

So-called cryptocurrency factories are popping up in several places in the country. In northern Norway, these plants have an electricity consumption that roughly matches the total annual consumption of the Lofoten region, Dagsavisen was able to reveal recently.

We can’t have it like this. Crypto factories are pointless projects that waste precious electricity on so-called mining Digital currencies, unregulated and purely speculative “money” for those who consider themselves the digital vanguard.

Bitcoin, the most famous of these currencies, has made very few people rich. It’s also an endless waste of energy.

Total consumption of cryptocurrency factories in four municipalities of Rana, Meloy, Hadsel and Foske in Nordland was 440 GWh in 2022. In comparison, the entire Lofoten consumption in 2022 was 475 GWh.

Norway is heading towards an energy deficit. The most pessimistic estimates say it could happen as early as two years from now. Others are somewhat more optimistic, but all professional bodies agree that we must develop more strength – and waste less.

These crypto factories are easy to get started with.

It has long been the first-come-first-served basis for assessing who gets access to Norway’s electricity grid. Without assessing the content and contributing to society, the authorities have granted a license to anyone who wants to use clean Norwegian electricity – which is also still cheap in the north.

The government has now given the go-ahead to switch to each project being evaluated individually. It’s a start. The next step should be to not give crypto factories the right to connect to our network. We cannot allow digital money to take precedence over lighting in homes.

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“We should have instead used the power that goes into cryptocurrency mining to power the already established industry in the municipalities,” Mayor Lena Arntzen (H) in Hadsel municipality tells Dagsavisen. We totally agree with her on that.

There is a reason to use stronger characteristics for this (misuse) of Norwegian power at a time when the energy crisis is affecting Europe. Sophie Marhaug (Rudette), a member of Parliament’s energy committee, called it “the energy policy scandal”. Unfortunately, she is absolutely right.

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Hanisi Anenih

Hanisi Anenih

"Web specialist. Lifelong zombie maven. Coffee ninja. Hipster-friendly analyst."

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