Canada is one of the world’s leading mining countries, and mining is still one of our primary industries. We mine many things, including gold, silver, iron, copper, zinc, and nickel, some of which are used in creating coins used as currency. It looks like Canada is now beginning to boom in another ‘gold rush’ style mining operation – the mining of cryptocurrencies!
Why are we on the way to becoming one of the ‘hottest’ spots in the world to mine crypto coins? One of the reasons is because we are not so hot – temperature-wise!
There are three things needed to make large-scale mining of Cryptocurrencies more profitable:
Low cost of Internet
Low cost of electricity
A cold climate to reduce costs of cooling due to overheating of the ‘mining rigs’
Thankfully, Canada is blessed to have all three! Canadian people are famous for being friendly, though our winters are not. It turns out our cold and unfriendly weather is just what large crypto-mining operations are looking for! Our climate, both literally and figuratively, is perfect for creating crypto coin. While our physical climate is favorably cool for the machines, our political climate is ‘warm’ towards cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology in general.
The Canadian government has been showing their support of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
The National Research Council recently launched a trial to explore the use of blockchain technology in making government research grant and funding information more transparent to the public.
A legislator in Toronto is trying to make it possible for residents of the country’s capital to pay their property taxes with cryptocurrency.
It’s been reported that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service views blockchain as a “mega-trend” that will have broad economic and social impact in the years to come.
Canada, currently one of the lead countries for physical mining, may also become a leader in cryptocurrency mining. Hydro companies in Quebec and Manitoba have been approached by many crypto-mining companies looking to work with them, and large digital mining operations are popping up in many of our provinces, including B.C., Alberta, and Ontario.
According to Cole Diamond, CEO of Coinsquare, one of Canada’s top cryptocurrency exchanges, “Canada is about to become a central source,” “I think there’s definitely a rush happening now. I think we’re going to have a significant amount of mining in the next few months.”
Digital mining companies from some other countries are looking to Canada as a great place to create mining operations. With the Chinese government banning initial coin offerings, stopping local exchanges from trading in cryptocurrencies, and future proposals to discourage bitcoin mining, the Chinese Bitcoin miners, part of the largest community of Bitcoin miners in the world, are looking to the True North Strong and Free as an alternative place to set up shop.
In an interview with CryptoCurrencyNews.com, Patrick Gray, CEO of HashChain Technology, a global blockchain company with a focus on mining cryptocurrencies, answered the question of why he chose Vancouver for a location for a data center with: “Canada has the optimal mining conditions for large-scale cryptocurrency mining. You need low costs for Internet and electricity, and a cold environment to reduce costs associated with overheating. There are very few places in the world that have all three, and Canada is one of them. By keeping our mining costs down, we guarantee the best ROI on each coin mined. Currently, only 14% of all mining is done in optimal conditions, so it is a big advantage for us.”
As Canadians, we’re proud of what we have to offer in natural resources, such as trees, minerals, and agriculture. It looks like the world can now also benefit from our climate and abundant hydro-power!
This blog is for informational purposes only.
This does not imply or suggest investment in cryptocurrencies.