{"id":5389,"date":"2023-01-13T20:37:09","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T20:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci02b547b6c00024c7"},"modified":"2023-01-13T20:37:09","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T20:37:09","slug":"bitcoin-mining-a-lifeline-for-virunga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/bitcoin-mining-a-lifeline-for-virunga","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin Mining Is Proving To Be A Lifeline For Africa\u2019s Oldest National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Virunga National Park, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is Africa\u2019s oldest protected space and a testament to the biodiversity and natural beauty of the continent. But the park has faced increasing pressure from local militia groups that have waged violent attacks on its animals and employees, all while various problems, including COVID-19, led to an extended closure of the park to tourists, which it claims represents approximately 40% of its revenue. <\/p>\n

A report in the MIT Technology Review<\/a> describes how park director Emmanuel de Merode has turned to bitcoin mining<\/a> to monetize the park\u2019s abundant natural resources that are otherwise stranded in order to preserve the park\u2019s existence. <\/p>\n

De Merode met with S\u00e9bastien Gouspillou, owner of Big Block Green Services, which advised El Salvador on its \u201cBitcoin City.\u201d Gouspillou described how \u201c[They] used to do mining by buying electricity \u2014 it wasn\u2019t efficient. The money maybe goes to oligarchs in Kazakhstan. In Virunga, we see it\u2019s saving the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gouspillou aided de Merode in setting up the first portions of the operation in 2020, which began mining in September of that year. The site then hired nine full-time workers to staff the facility, who work in rotating shifts within the jungle to operate the miners. It is powered by three hydro plants within the park, a sustainable source of electricity that was already being used to power nearby towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday there are 10 containers powered directly by the plant\u2019s four-meter turbines. Each container holds 250 to 500 rigs,\u201d describes the report. Virunga owns three of these 10 containers, while Gouspillou owns the remaining seven. Their arrangement allows him to purchase energy from Virunga, while keeping the bitcoin mined.<\/p>\n

Michael Saylor commented on the project, saying that Bitcoin is \u201cthe ideal high-tech industry to put in a nation that has plenty of clean energy but isn\u2019t able to export a product or produce a service with that energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Merode described how, despite recent market downturns, he still retains confidence that the project will be successful, saying, \u201cWe\u2019re not speculating on its value; we\u2019re generating it. If you buy Bitcoin and it decreases, you lose money. We\u2019re making Bitcoin out of surplus energy and monetizing something that otherwise has no value. That\u2019s a big difference.\u201d <\/p>\n

He also addressed custody of the bitcoin in response to a question about what would happen if he was attacked, an ever-present threat in the jungle. \u201cIf I crashed? The digital wallet is managed by our finance team \u2026 It\u2019s unlikely we sit on Bitcoin for more than a few weeks anyway, because we need the money to run the park. So if something happened to me or our CFO lost the password, we\u2019d give him a hard time \u2014 but it wouldn\u2019t cost us much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virunga National Park, located in Eastern Congo, is mining bitcoin to preserve revenue in the face of disease and militia attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2730,"featured_media":4711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[84,1732,97,93,277,693],"class_list":{"0":"post-5389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-congo","10":"tag-mining","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-renewables","13":"tag-sustainability"},"author_data":{"id":2730,"name":"BtcCasey","nicename":"casey","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/jn_tjlo_400x400.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/africa-bitcoin-technology.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389","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\/2730"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}