Cryptocurrency comes to the Kootenays

Part IV. A financial snapshot of West Kootenay bitcoin mining

— Background image Bob Morton photo

So how is DMG Blockchain Solutions doing? In a January interview with the website Medium company executive Steve Eliscu said, “DMG has raised $35.1 million (CAD) in two funding rounds, and we are already profitably mining bitcoins for a group of Japanese bitcoin investors. Given our access to the capital markets and the strategic relationships that our founders have, DMG has skipped so many stages in the traditional VC development chain. Cryptocurrency mining currently generates about $20K of revenue per megawatt of mining capacity, every day, so it is easy to see how a mid-sized mining farm of 10–20 megawatts can grow quickly to be a very big business.”

What are the economic benefits of crypto mining for the Kootenay region?  Answers: the lease, with an option to purchase, of an empty 27,000-square-foot building in a small community; the employment of 20 or so employees; a new power-intensive customer for FortisBC; and a boon to nearby electrical contractors.

In the secretive, sometimes murky and almost incomprehensible world of the bitcoin mining, DMG Blockchain Solution has quietly developed a major West Kootenay presence, evidently based in the tiny lakeside community of Christina Lake, British Columbia—population 1,099.  Proving once again that there is gold in them thar’ hills—though this time it appears to be bitcoin gold.