UK Farmers Are Using Cow Poop To Power Cryptocurrency Mining

Farmers in the UK have come up with an interesting way to make money off their cow’s dung.

Currently a large amount of farmers are turning decomposing cow manure into electricity in a process called anaerobic digestion.

The farmers then have a choice sell the power created to National Power Grid or to make a crypto rig which earns a lot more.

Most farmers are choosing to do the latter and are helping to renew energy while their at it which could ultimately quiet critics like Elon Musk who are concerned about the effects of mining on the environment.

Who Needs Coal When You Have Cow Dung? Cryptocurrency Mining Goes Brown https://t.co/F25CJvED03

— The Highland Sun (@HighlandSun) June 10, 2021

💩 A rising number of UK farmers are using cow dung for carbon-neutral #crypto mining operations.#ENG https://t.co/jHNw2Jsm9k

— cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) June 14, 2021

Crypto News had more on the story:

With the debate on crypto mining’s energy use increasingly involving renewable sources, a rising number of UK farmers are reaching for a surprising reservoir of power – cow waste, aka dung – using this traditional, multipurpose resource to generate electricity for carbon-neutral crypto mining operations, therefore to diversify and up their revenues.

Currently, a share of the country’s farmers produce electricity from manure and sell it to the National Grid, the company that operates the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales. Selling renewable power to the National Grid can earn farmers around GBP 0.07 (USD 0.1) per kilowatt, but running a crypto rig can earn GBP 40 (USD 56.4) a day, and some USD 21,000 a year, according to UK daily Metro.

In line with the trend, Easy Crypto Hunter, a UK firm that specializes in making crypto mining hardware, has observed a major uptake from farmers who are looking to diversify and increase their revenues.

“More recently, solar panel incentives have dwindled to virtually zero but our machines are now providing those lost incentives,” said Josh Riddett, CEO of Easy Crypto Hunter. “Farming is getting much harder, and that is something which will often drive a farmer to diversify in order to earn a good living.”

UK Farmers Use Cow Dung to Power Ethereum Mining, Boost Revenues – https://t.co/JpTYPZuD3q pic.twitter.com/uiJpmo1j7b

— Sonny (@nando12000) June 18, 2021

BBC covered the interesting technique used by the farmers too:

In a green shipping container next to a large domed tank, a very different kind of farm also thrives in this idyllic landscape – a cryptocurrency farm.

Philip Hughes’s family have farmed the land for generations – but now he is turning his hand to mining, using powerful computers powered by renewable energy to generate new cryptocurrency.

And that energy is derived, as Philip puts it, from “cow muck”.

A big six-cylinder engine running at 500rpm turns methane given off by decomposing cow manure into electricity.

The process is called anaerobic digestion.

In the absence of oxygen, microbes break down the manure and produce methane, which can be combusted to produce heat and electricity, instead of entering the atmosphere where it would act as a powerful greenhouse gas.

About two-thirds of the electricity generated by the anaerobic digester helps power the farm and the farm’s caravan park – but the remainder powers mining rigs, specialist computers about the size of a suitcase.

They are working on complex computations that serve to verify transactions and in return are rewarded with new cryptocurrency – a process that can consume large amounts of energy.

As miners start to use more renewable energy to mine, expect cryptocurrency to rise.

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