{"id":16272,"date":"2021-05-31T16:28:01","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T16:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci02847cac600027cb"},"modified":"2021-05-31T16:28:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T16:28:01","slug":"bitcoin-mining-surges-in-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/bitcoin-mining-surges-in-argentina","title":{"rendered":"Subsidized Energy And Shrinking Economy Lead To Bitcoin Mining Boom In Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p>Bitcoin miners in Argentina are taking advantage of the country\u2019s shrinking economy and its debased currency to harvest oversized returns, powered by cheap, government-subsidized energy, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-05-31\/crypto-mining-booms-on-cheap-subsidized-energy-in-argentina\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Bloomberg<\/em><\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven after Bitcoin\u2019s price correction, the cost of electricity for anyone mining from their house is still a fraction of the total revenue generated,\u201d Nicolas Bourbon, who has experience mining bitcoin from Buenos Aires, told <em>Bloomberg<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Miners are capitalizing on Argentina\u2019s cheap residential electricity due to intense government subsidies that seek to win political points with voters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe crypto that miners generate is typically sold at the parallel exchange rate, but the energy is paid for at a subsidized rate,\u201d explained Bourbon. \u201cAt the moment, revenues are very high.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bitcoin parallel exchange rate in the country is selling at a hefty premium, as Argentines have substantial currency restrictions imposed on them and <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/bitcoin-usage-accelerates-in-argentina\">desperately seek better stores of value<\/a> than their fiat currency \u2013\u2013 the peso. According to <em>Bloomberg<\/em>, bitcoin\u2019s parallel exchange rate in the country traded at around $63,000 on Sunday, a 75% premium to the official rate of $36,000.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from local Argentine homeowners, international mining firms are also taking action to benefit from the situation. Last month, Canada\u2019s Bitfarms Ltd. secured a deal to draw 210 megawatts of power from an underused Argentinian natural gas plant, per <em>Bloomberg<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were looking for places that have overbuilt their electrical generation systems,\u201d Bitfarms President Geoffrey Morphy told <em>Bloomberg<\/em>. \u201cEconomic activity in Argentina is down, and power is not being fully utilized. So it was a win-win situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although electricity in Argentina is much cheaper than in its neighboring countries, the home mining trend is starting to pick up in South America. For example, in Brazil, bitcoin mining interest has reached a three-year high, according to data from Google Trends, local outlet <a href=\"https:\/\/portaldobitcoin.uol.com.br\/brasil-vive-boom-de-mineracao-caseira-de-criptomoedas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Portal Do Bitcoin<\/em><\/a> recently reported. Growing unemployment, a shrinking economy and a devalued currency since the pandemic breakout have left Brazilians seeking alternative income sources by mining bitcoin at home.<\/p>\n<p>As a permissionless, government-agnostic, decentralized money, bitcoin is providing an alternative to people under interventionist governments\u2019 monetary policies around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Low energy costs, high inflation and restrictive capital controls have pushed residents of Argentina to mine bitcoin in their homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2572,"featured_media":9556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[692,189,690],"class_list":["post-16272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-culture","tag-argentina","tag-bitcoin-mining","tag-inflation"],"author_data":{"id":2572,"name":"Namcios","nicename":"namcios","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pfp-96x96.png"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/img_4808.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2572"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}