Since the crypto mining frenzy that started in 2013, there are periods in time when the GPU miners have inconvenienced others in the lust for the digital coin. In Iran, the country has reportedly been investigating power outages caused by – you guessed it – GPU mining farms.
The punchline here is that all these mining farms aren’t locally owned, but are in fact, systems owned by a Chinese company named RHY. According to a report by El Chapuzas Informatico, the company shifted its cryptomining operations from the mainland into Iran. Why, you ask? Because in Iran, the cost of electricity consumption is four times lower than in China; Iran is one of the several countries that can boast having one of the lowest cost for electricity consumption at US$0.027 (~RM0.11) per kilowatt.
At the time of writing, Iran is home to no less than 14 large mining farms running continuously, consuming a total of 300 megawatts of power. For context, that’s the power consumption of a city with an average of 100000 people living in it.
Despite the power outages, Iranian authorities have said that the company that owns the mining farms weren’t doing anything wrong and had obtained all the necessary authorisation to operate the facilities in the area.
(Source: Videocardz, France24, El Chapuzas Informatico // Image: Videocardz)
