This week the Canadian firm, Hive Blockchain, announced it would be starting a $100Mn USD mining operation in Sweden. Hive’s CEO says the mining center will “ten times bigger” than the company’s Iceland mining centers.
Hive Blockchain Is Starting a Mining Operation in Sweden
Hive Blockchain is a company that was created by Harry Pokrandt and Olivier Roussy Newton in 2013. The firm is dedicated to mining operations and developing the blockchain industry in a partnership between Genesis Mining and Fiore Group. According to regional publications in Sweden, Pokrandt explains the company raised approximately $115Mn for mining operations in Boden this past May. During that time Hive was also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and interest in the company grew exponentially. Genesis mining will also be involved with Hive’s Boden mine and help get the operations started.
“One can say that we are providing Genesis with the capital and, in return, they build up the infrastructure and run the operations at the site,” says Hive’s Pokrandt.
Cheap Swedish Electricity, Cold Weather, and a Favorable Political Climate
Harry Pokrandt CEO of Hive Blockchain.
Pokrandt details the reason Hive chose Boden is because of cheap Swedish electricity, and the cold is also a plus. Additionally, Pokrandt says the “political climate” in Sweden is also favorable to operate a bitcoin mine.
“Our investors would not have been as interested if we had chosen a country like Russia or China instead,” Pokrandt emphasizes in the interview.
We already have a few places in Iceland, but the facility we are now building in Sweden will be ten times as big.
Interest in Large Mining Plants Has Been Enormous
Pokrandt says getting the mine operational in time is integral to making a profit in the bitcoin mining business. “Bitcoin mines can be a very profitable business, ” Pokrandt says during his interview. “We have been lucky with our timing,” Pokrandt further notes.
We could not predict this when we were listed on the stock exchange in May, but since then, interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology and large mining plants has been enormous.
Hive’s CEO hopes that new types of graphics cards will improve existing mines this year for mining cryptocurrencies like ethereum, dash, and monero. The Boden mine’s ASICs dedicated solely to bitcoin mining will be delivered shortly as soon as the new data halls are finished.
What do you think about Hive and Genesis Mining starting a mining facility in Sweden? Let us know what you think about this venture in the comments below.