Digital Marathon Aims For Africa As A New Bitcoin Mining Location

Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital expansion to Africa. (Photo; Doc. Techpark)

JAKARTA - Digital Marathon, one of the largest bitcoin mining companies in the world, plans to expand its business to the African continent. The US-based company sees the huge potential of available energy resources in several countries in Africa, including Ethiopia.

According to Charlie Schumacher, vice president of communications for Digital Marathon, Africa has many energy resources that are unused or not used optimally. This could be an opportunity for companies to place bitcoin miners there and increase the profitability of these energy resources.

"We believe that bitcoin mining is one of the technological solutions to the energy sector, and Africa may be the right place to prove this theory," Schumacher was quoted as saying by Blockworks on Thursday, February 8.

Schumacher added, by becoming the first customer for new power generation projects in Africa, the company could encourage the development of more energy supply on the continent. It can also help meet energy needs for local communities who are still having difficulty accessing electricity.

Marathon Digital is one of the big players in the bitcoin mining industry. The company has operations in the US, United Arab Emirates, and Paraguay. In January 2024, the company recorded a hash rate of 26.4 excesses per second (EH/s), an increase of 7% compared to the previous month.

The hash rate is a measure of the computing power used to mine bitcoin. The higher the hash rate, the greater the chance of finding a new block and getting a bitcoin prize.

In April 2024, the prize per block for bitcoin miners will be cut half from 6.25 bitcoins to 3.125 bitcoins. This is referred to as halving, an event that occurs every four years to control the number of bitcoins circulating.

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To anticipate halving, Marathon Digital is trying to reduce its operational costs by finding mine sites that have cheap energy and a supportive climate. One of the locations being considered is Ethiopia, which has attracted many bitcoin mining companies from China.

The Chinese government itself has banned bitcoin mining activities since 2021, resulting in many miners having to find new places to continue its operations. Ethiopia offers cheap and sustainable energy, as well as a cool climate that can reduce equipment cooling costs.

However, not all bitcoin mining companies are interested in expanding outside the US. Some competitors of Marathon Digital, such as Core Scientific, Riot Platforms, and CleanSpark, prefer to expand their domestic operations.

According to the Core Scientific representative, the company is still evaluating growth opportunities inside and outside the US, but considers that a consistent and supportive regulatory framework is critical to the long-term success of bitcoin mining.