Data Backup Digest

As the price of Bitcoin has been on an upward swing over the past few months and years, more companies are rushing to get in the action. Bitmain, who has been around for several years and has even offered their own contingency plan in the case of market disruption, is even showing increased interest with their newest investment; a 135-watt data center.

Introducing A New Kind of Data Center

But this isn’t your traditional data center. Whereas most facilities are meant for the long-term storage of data, Bitmain is using their data center to perform large-scale Bitcoin mining. This does involve the short-term storage of Bitcoins, but it’s more of a revolving system.

To top it off, Bitmain is drawing much of their energy – a whopping 135 megawatts at full consumption capacity – from renewable sources such as wind and solar. Bitmain will make their plans available to the general public so interested parties can view their data center plans and, if desired, copy or modify them for their own projects. The hope is that it will spark new interest in Bitcoin and more investments from around the globe.

As stated in a recent blog post: “We have seen that most data centers in the mining industry are wasting considerable money or other resources. We want to provide a more professional and cost-saving example to the industry.”

The entire data center consists of 45 facilities in northwestern China; all of which are touted as being dust-free and equipped with advanced cooling systems. It even takes advantage of the surrounding climate, which is described as “bitterly cold and dry,” to provide natural cooling and greater access to wind power. Bitmain hopes that anyone who uses their plan will also utilize some of the renewable and eco-friendly features that are a crucial part of the design.

Although the entire facility will not be used for Bitcoin mining, most of the 45 facilities that make up the complex were sold before initial construction even began. Those that aren’t used in digital mining will be allocated toward more typical data center services, including long-term data storage, data archival, retention and disaster recovery.

Receiving A Mixed Reaction

While the state-of-the-art data center is obviously beneficial for Bitmain, some prominent Bitcoin investors are already speaking out about the centralization of so much Bitcoin data. As more than half of all processing power on the Bitcoin network is now controlled by a handful of Chinese mining pools, the new data center might serve as a geographic representation for Bitcoin. This, of course, goes against one of the original purposes of the digital currency.

Trying Out Bitcoin Mining For Yourself

For more information about Bitcoin mining or the team behind Bitmain, including details on any of the products or services they offer, please visit their official website at www.bitmain.com. Their most popular miner is the AntMiner S9, but they provide a wide range of devices that are suitable for anyone from the Bitcoin beginner to the most tech-savvy of miners.