Mining cryptocurrencies cow poop produced electricity it's easier to operate a computer than a herd - Surely someone remembers a chapter that is coming in which it occurred to them to generate electricity with the excrement generated by the neighbors. It ended the way things usually end in that show. But reality beats fiction, and farmer Philip Hughes is confident his project will have a better ending. Even that it has no end. At the moment, it is managing to mine cryptocurrencies with the energy produced from cow poop. Their story is told on BBC.

Many generations of Hughes have taken care of the family farm in Denbighshire (North Wales), but it was Philip who decided to go beyond the role inherent in these facilities. And, for the moment, he seems very satisfied: “It is easier to operate a computer than a herd of cows and sheep,” he says.

In a green container located on the farm, powerful computers are engaged in cryptocurrency mining thanks to the renewable energy obtained when a 6-cylinder engine (at 500 rpm) transforms the methane released from the decomposition of cow manure into electricity. This product, they explain, can be used to generate heat or energy, but, if not used, it would go into the atmosphere where it is “a powerful greenhouse gas”.

Mining cryptocurrencies cow poop produced electricity

Hughes uses two-thirds of the electricity generated by cow droppings to power the farm, and the rest goes directly to machines that are dedicated to mining cryptocurrencies, specifically, to mining Ethereum (the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, after Bitcoin).

Hughes ' business prevents methane from acting negatively in the atmosphere, but it also enters fully into the (very popular lately) debate of the environmental damage that cryptocurrency mining can bring. There are, the BBC points out, who have many doubts that the crypto ecosystem is durable and solid enough to compensate for the large hydroelectric expenditure it entails.

Mining cryptocurrencies cow poop produced electricity

This is the case, for example, Alex de Vries, who, in the blog Digiconomist, says that it is a waste of green energy and compares the potential of mined with the other processes of the traditional financial system: “If we look at Bitcoin can only process 7 transactions per second; a payment processor such as Visa done up to 65,000”.

This expert also criticizes the short lifespan of computers used to mine cryptocurrencies. In his opinion, these can become obsolete in a short time, generating a large amount of e-waste.

The opposite view has Mike Novogratz, whose cryptocurrency firm, Galaxy Digital, presented a study recently in which he concluded that bitcoin mining consumes half the energy of the traditional banking system.

Mining cryptocurrencies cow poop produced electricity

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A 29-year-old crypto millionaire thanks to cryptocurrency arbitrage shares 2 tips for novice investors and explains why ether will never outperform bitcoin

Sam Bankman-Fried is the co-founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and a legend in the world of digital currencies.

His crypto-arbitrage strategy allowed him to earn a daily return of 10% on trades in million dollar trades with cryptocurrencies, which helped him accumulate a wealth that placed him on the Forbes list of crypto-millionaires at only 29 years old.

While Bankman-Fried has more than enough money to retire, he prefers to spend his time building the ultimate cryptocurrency exchange platform for investors.

Its goal is to create an alternative to the "m trading----- that existed when I was buying and selling cryptocurrencies in 2017 and 2018," he explains in an interview.

"We think the odds of failing the exchange are pretty high because we think we'll just never get users and that would be the end. But we felt there was enough chance of success to make it worth going for anyway, " explains Bankman-Fried.

In 2 years, FTX went from being relatively unknown to one of the top 5 exchange houses, with over 400 billion dollars (just over 320 billion euros) in monthly trading volume last April.

FTX changed the game of trading by enabling collateral management through a single portfolio. This means that investors can trade anything on FTX via a margin wallet, as long as they have sufficient collateral to cover the full size of their position.+

"It's one of the few times there's a change that simplifies the product and makes it more powerful," says Bankman-Fried.

Some might assume that by simplifying the collateral process, FTX would face increased risk when it comes to settlements, a process that occurs when traders don't have enough collateral to back up their position.

However, when an unexpected 17% drop in bitcoin's value occurred on April 17, FTX performed better than most.

The platform is designed to discourage massive liquidations by limiting the size of positions that investors can take on with really high leverage and having an engine that liquidates only what is necessary, Bankman-Fried says.

There is fierce competition from other traders in the cryptocurrency market, and entering is difficult, according to Bankman-Fried.

First, it is advisable to know the market by learning from the experts. Bankman-Fried spent several years learning his trade at Jane Street trading company.

Second, try to figure out what advantage you have, such as a great technology or a good instinct for market direction.

"I think one of the interesting things is the fuzzy line that separates the trader from the crypto investor," says Bankman-Fried.

Bankman-Fried's approach to trading is evolving. He has realized how big investors in this market have been able to trade in different environments and is spending more time thinking about strategies that will prepare him well for future cycles, something for which he said he did not have great instincts before.

"Often, many of the advantages are in cases where the bull market holds. That's where you need to focus because that's where what you do matters most. But with the caveat that you have to make sure you don't get upset if there's a temporary bear market, don't put yourself in a position where you can't survive that," advises Bankman-Fried.

The cryptocurrency in which most is invested is bitcoin, which has a market capitalization close to 1,000 million dollars. In recent weeks, the Ethereum blockchain coin, ether, has presented its case as a challenge for bitcoin, as it has risen more than 100% in price since early April with a market capitalization of $ 450 billion.

Bitcoin's 93% gain so far this year has been overshadowed by ether's 450% rise at that time. The Ethereum network hosts a variety of decentralized financial applications, including non-fungible tokens or NFT, which have caused furor among artists and celebrities. The multiple uses of the network, plus the fact that its carbon footprint is considerably lower than that of bitcoin, have increased the popularity of ether.

Bankman-Fried would be surprised to see ether outperform bitcoin, considering that bitcoin has the huge advantage of being the first agreed default cryptocurrency, which has a lot of value.

"It's hard for me to see ether displacing bitcoin, although I could be wrong," he sums up.