Congo National Park fights money shortage with BTC mining

Photo: Julien Harneis from Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Representatives of the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have problems with funding, which is necessary for the protection of nature. Low tourist flow and deforestation, together with poor government assistance and disease, make it difficult for the red-listed mountain gorillas to maintain flora.

In this regard, the administration decided to come up with an unusual and creative solution. The park owners will now use the local hydroelectric power plant to mine the flagship cryptocurrency.

The situation was commented by Emmanuel de Merode, director of the Virunga National Park:

We built a power plant and decided that we would gradually build a whole network... Then in 2018 we had to close the park to tourists due to kidnappings[bylocalrebels]. The park was closed in 2019 due to Ebola. And in 2020 and beyond, the story of covid began.

In four years, our tourism revenues (which used to be 40% of the park's total income) collapsed... This is not what we expected, so we had to find a solution.

To start mining BTC, the administration of the park decided to buy mining equipment in the amount of $200,000. According to their calculations, mining facilities powered by hydroelectric power should be enough to ultimately provide the profit they need.

Cryptocurrency investor Sebastian Guspillu came to the aid of the Congo National Park, who purchased ASIC miners in early 2020. Sebastian will now work with the administration to build the world's first bitcoin mining farm operated by the National Park and powered by renewable energy.

The Luviro hydroelectric plant will provide the park owners with all the energy they need. This station has been operating since 2013 and is one of several river water power stations in the park. In addition to the fact that the administration will be able to mine bitcoin, they will also not pollute nature, since the most humane method has been chosen for this, which requires only energy obtained from the flow of the river.

Although everyone is aware of the volatile nature of bitcoin, the owner of the national park, Emmanuel de Merode, has optimistic expectations about what they will do in the near future. His main argument in favor of the correctness of such a decision was the indication of the profit received by the miners, regardless of the value of BTC today.

Michael Sailor, a well-known bitcoin advocate and lover, co-founded Virunga National Park. According to Sailor, this bitcoin mining opportunity is “an ideal high-tech industry for a country that has a lot of clean energy, but cannot export a product or produce a service at a minimal cost using this energy.”