Bitcoin is a Liberating Force for an African Village Mining It
A village in Malawi is full of “happy people” – thanks to Bitcoin mining.
The village is called Bondo. Rather, it’s a cluster of villages in the foothills of Mount Mulanje, in a remote Malawi region near Mozambique’s border.
It’s an impoverished region with no modes of transport besides one’s feet, very few resources to feed people, and no electricity. Well, until recently.
UnHerd reported that “electricity has arrived in Bondo.”
What the region does have is massive rainfall. Three turbines were installed in a micro-hydro system to exploit that rainfall.
In a concrete pump shed sit 32 computers mining Bitcoin.
And while crypto mining is commonly criticized for electricity consumption, the report argues that,
“This initiative flips that narrative by using Bitcoin mining to fund energy in parts of Africa that are too poor or remote to merit connection to grids, but which do have plentiful supplies of potential power sources.”
Mining utilizes the excess energy of these renewable plants. It has created a “life-changing” impact for the 1,800 homes connected to a mini-grid.
And it has done so in a number of ways.
Firstly, as said, people finally got electricity, unlike in most places in the country. Among many other things, they can use stoves to cook, refrigerators to store their food and medicine, watch TV, and the lights are on for children to study, giving them a chance to continue their education instead of leaving school.
Also, villagers are able to produce food and drinks to sell at the local markets.
The senior chief told the reporter they never thought they’d see energy supplied to the villages. And not only homes, but schools, maize mills, small enterprises, shops, and churches are also connected to the grid.
“When you move
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