Cryptocurrency mining may be slowing down or becoming less useful, but Russians have found another utility for the virtual mining activity. Residents in Irkutsk in the Siberian region of Russia are now using their cryptocurrency mining devices to warm up their homes for the winter.
This is being done because of the mining devices, usually PCs equipped with heat-generating multiple graphics processing units (GPU), that use a lot of electricity and raise the temperature considerably. Irkutsk entrepreneurs Ilya Frolov and Dmitry Tolmachyov have come up with a way to take advantage of the byproducts of cryptocurrency mining device by connecting them to their home's underfloor heating system.
It seems Frolov and Tolmachyov have hit two birds with one stone in the process, as their homes needed to be warmed up while the mining PCs, called cryptofarms, needed to be cooled lest they get fried. "Usually mining machines are cooled by blowers; the heat is then released to the atmosphere. We consider this not rational or ecological, that's why we've implemented a concept where the heat from computing operations is used for peaceful purposes of warming houses," said Frolov.
Cryptocurrency miners wanting to try this in their homes, or people wanting to earn money while also heating their houses, will have to consider the price of electricity in their area though, as the power in Irkutsk is relatively cheap compared to Moscow or even outside Russia.
In the near future, specifically by 2020, the two entrepreneurs plan to build as much as 2,000 "cryptohouses," providing two solutions for the price of one in the cold homes of Siberia. This will also take advantage of the fact that the city of Irkutsk has been dubbed as the informal cryptocurrency mining capital of Russia, with about 1,000 people mining cryptocurrency in the city.
It is not yet certain what the two plan as a contingency for when the demand for cryptocurrency mining slows down, as the cryptocurrency winter has already begun in other countries.
