New Bitfarms Operation in Argentina Slashes Costs With Natural Gas

Bitcoin mining giant Bitfarms has fired up a new operation in Argentina, claiming a major energy advantage. 

The company is one of the world’s largest mining operators and operates in four countries, but said that the Argentina project is expected to have access to its cheapest energy.

“Based on current foreign currency exchange rates and natural gas prices in Argentina, the cost of the power in Rio Cuarto is expected to be the lowest in Bitfarms portfolio, creating a significant advantage,” Bitfarms COO Geoff Morphy told Decrypt.

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Bitfarms first announced its new contract in the South American nation last April. It was launched today.

“Argentina holds the second largest shale gas reserves in the world while also offering strong renewable energy potential,” Morphy explained. “We are uniquely positioned to expand on a global basis and continue to take advantage of the region’s low-cost, surplus electrical generation capacity.”

While the location is also attractive given that Bitfarms’ founders live in Argentina, he noted that setting up where energy is abundant is a key corporate strategy.

“When we see areas that have excess energy capacity which would otherwise be wasted, we try and leverage that low-cost, surplus electrical generation capacity and to contract power for longer terms at attractive rates, which is beneficial to both Bitfarms and the local energy producers,” Morphy added.

The new operation is based in Rio Cuarto, Cordoba, and increased Bitfarms’ hashrate to 4.1 exahash/second (EH/s) from 3.9, the miner said in a statement. Hash rate refers to the computational power used to mine a cryptocurrency. 

The Rio Carto project consists of two warehouses; today’s operation turned on the first of two 50-megawatt (MW) buildings, according to the announcement. 

It adds 10 MW of capacity, increasing total corporate capacity to 176 MW, the company said. Bitfarms added that it expects the site to be completed at the start of the second quarter of 2023. 

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The Canadian company uses hydroelectric power to mine Bitcoin at its other sites. 

Bitcoin mining is the business of using computers to keep the network secure and mint new cryptocurrency. It uses a lot of energy and is often done on an industrial scale with lots of machines.