Bithub Africa has started using off-grid solar power to mine bitcoin and ethereum. John Karanja, the founder and chief executive officer of the small Kenyan mining operation, hopes to spread the technology to the rest of the continent while exposing the lie that cryptocurrency mining poses a danger to the environment.

Clean Cryptocurrency

“We are using solar energy in a similar manner to traditional power sources to test its reliability as a source for cryptocurrency mining,” Karanja told news.Bitcoin.com in an interview on Oct. 30. “We are still analyzing the data, but what we can already see is that the blockchain economy is certainly incentivizing innovation in the renewable energy industry globally.”

Bithub Africa has laid out a series of interconnected cables and devices at its small mining facility in Nairobi. An inverter connects to a battery, which is patched through to a controller that is linked to a 200-watt solar panel. The PV module is fixed to the roof at an angle to maximize solar capture. “We are using a standard (solar) panel that generates enough to power a small network node that runs the blockchain software,” Karanja said.

In a separate demonstration video on Bitcoinke, a Kenyan news site, he explained the setup in more detail. “Essentially what we have here is that the nuc computing device is integrated to the controller to generate the tokens on the protocol,” he said.

Founded in 2015, Bithub.Africa is a commercial blockchain accelerator that is driving the adoption of blockchain technology and solutions across Africa. The company also focuses on building systems that facilitate access to financial services and energy through public blockchain projects and open protocols such as Bitcoin.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: news.bitcoin.com