why has a chili island in the north
atlantic become a crucial frontier in
the occult
high-stakes world of #
cryptocurrency
mining an unremarkable looking cluster
of sheds on the western cluster of the
nordic nation
might just hold the answer so join us
today as we follow the money and take a
peek inside iceland's insane bitcoin superman
about a decade ago the first proper
real-world bitcoin transaction took place
when one laszlo hagnex infamously purchased two hot and juicy papa john's pizzas for ten
thousand bitcoins those ten thousand coins were only worth at the time around forty dollars
delicious as the pizzas no doubt were if he'd only kept hold of those bitcoins they'd by now be worth somewhere north of 280 million dollars created by a shadowy mysterious figure or perhaps group going by the name of satoshi nakamoto bitcoin is one of a number of
cryptocurrencies that are created via computer processes which use raw mathematics and sheer computational horsepower to underwrite the value of transactions as opposed to conventional monetary systems which are backed by central banks cryptocurrencies rely on the mathematical certitude of a decentralized ledger known as a blockchain cryptocurrencies are ingeniously summoned into being by a process of so-called mining instead of shovels and pickaxes modern-day cryptocurrency miners
simply require an internet-linked
computer that can solve or hash
big number problems which are then added
to the blockchain back in the day crypto pioneers could run humble mining operations on home laptops extracting coins almost as a background process for instance while they slept fast forward to today however and that
sort of amateur setup simply doesn't cut
it anymore vast server farm style operations have sprung up around the world
to take advantage of what many have
described as a modern day gold rush
one such operation is situated within a
series of ordinary looking sheds
by an abandoned world war ii airstrip on a sprawling former u.s air force base near keflavik airport in the west of iceland inside the 400 square meter sheds are shelves and shelves of whirring computers reportedly as loud when they're running in full flow as a jet engine taking off and they're always running working hard
to crack the next code and acquire the
next precious cryptocurrency bounty
ahead of competition all over the world
its rivals are everywhere
literally wherever there's an internet
connection but most notably in places like russia
china canada venezuela and the united
states
every ten minutes roughly a prize of six
and a quarter bitcoins is released and
someone
somewhere will get lucky the more
computer power you have on your site
naturally the luckier you're likely to
get this icelandic operation called
enigma
and run by eight-year-old cryptocurrency
bigwigs genesis was established in 2014.
the last time journalists paid a visit
in 2018
there were tens of thousands of
individual computers working flat out
around the clock mining coins
each of the many thousands of identical
units boasted its own fan
and the ceiling of the sheds were
supported by six giant ceiling turbines
that were 24
7 with the combined mechanical force of
260 washing machines
this constant cool airflow is essential
to keep the computational hardware at
optimal working temperatures
that's because any burnout or
interruption to the mining process
literally costs money with individual
coins trading at many hundreds of
dollars
potentially millions are at stake so for
the technicians overseeing the enigma
facility
failure really isn't an option the
electricity bills at enigma reportedly
run to more than a million dollars a
month
and with each computing unit costing a
few thousand dollars to buy and install
there's tens of millions of pounds in
assets humming away constantly
no wonder security is tight not least
since a major spree of thefts a couple
of years back
saw some two million dollars of crypto
mining tech taken from their rightful
owners in a series of raids around
iceland
it's worth looking at these computers in
detail because they're actually a far
cry from the standard pcs you use at
home or work
instead each unit consists of a main