Virunga National Park, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is the oldest protected area in Africa and a testament to the biodiversity and natural beauty of the continent. But the park has come under increasing pressure from local militia groups that have carried out violent attacks on animals and its employees, all of which have various problems, including COVID-19, leading to the closure of the park to tourists, who claim to represent about 40% of its revenue.
A report in the MIT Technology Review explains how the director of the park Emmanuel de Merode has turned to bitcoin mining to monetize the abundant natural resources of the park which used to be stranded to preserve the existence of the park.
De Merode met with Sébastien Gouspillou, owner of Big Block Green Services, who advised El Salvador about “Bitcoin City.” Gouspillou explains how “[They] used to do mining by buying electricity – inefficient. The money probably went to the oligarchs in Kazakhstan. In Virunga, we see this save the park.
Gouspillou helped de Merode prepare the first part 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 worked in rotation in the forest to operate the miners. It is powered by three hydro plants in the park, a sustainable source of electricity that has been used to power nearby towns.
“Today there are 10 containers driven directly by the factory’s four-meter turbine. Each container holds 250 to 500 rigs,” the report said. Virunga owns three of these 10 containers, while Gouspillou owns the other seven. The arrangement allows them to buy energy from Virunga, while still mining bitcoins.
Michael Saylor commented on the project, saying that Bitcoin is “a high-tech industry that is suitable for inclusion in countries that have clean energy but cannot export products or produce services with that energy.”
De Merode explained how, despite recent market downturns, he still retains confidence that the project will be successful, saying, “We are not speculating on the value; we make it. If you buy Bitcoin and it decreases, you will lose money. We create Bitcoin from excess energy and monetize things that have no value. The difference is huge.”
He also addressed the custody of bitcoins in response to the question of what would happen if they were attacked, a threat that is always present in the forest. “What if I crash? The digital wallet is managed by our finance team … It is impossible for us to sit on Bitcoin for more than a few weeks, because we need money to run the park. So if something happens to me or our CFO loses his password, we’ll give him a hard time – but it won’t be worth it.