Key facts:
Much of the country’s cheap electricity is wasted or sold, experts say.
The regulations will be promoted by the community itself for the benefit of all, they add.
It is 10 am on December 7th. As is normal at this time of year, the heat is unforgiving in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, and the thermometer shows almost 30 ° C, which is enhanced by the humidity of the environment outdoors. However, this is not an impediment for an auditorium on the outskirts of the city to fill with people interested in learning more about Bitcoin (BTC) mining.
The exhibitors are Daniel Frumkin and Hugo Galicia Lara, director of research and content and technical support at Braiins, respectively. This company, which manufactures firmware for mining ASICs and also provides other services for miners, has set its sights on Paraguay. And they know well why.
In dialogue with CriptoNoticias just after the event, in which they received many inquiries from those present, both expressed their vision about the potential of the industry in this country. In addition, they also spoke about regulations and were encouraged to forecast what awaits mining in the future.
Paraguay, the epicenter of bitcoin mining in South America
Establishing why Paraguay is attracting the attention of more and more companies related to Bitcoin mining was easy for Frumkin: “Paraguay has abundant and cheap energy, a part of which may end up being wasted or sold to other countries.”
“The population is not big enough to consume all that electricity. The idea is to use it to mine and get more benefits. There is a lot of potential in Paraguay, and most of it has not yet been discovered, “he added.
Beyond the commercial, it also considers that The Bitcoin network can be strengthened by maintaining geographic diversification. “In the effort for decentralization, from Braiins we want to make mining more accessible to people outside of China,” he said.
From the mining bans dictated by the Chinese government, which were reported by CriptoNoticias throughout 2021, “an opportunity was opened for everyone else,” says Frumkin, who comes from New Mexico, south of the United States.
In your vision, the place most likely to benefit is the United States“Because all the publicly traded mining industries were able to expand rapidly and buy hardware to acquire more capacity.” Most miners do not have access to that financing, he compared.
In this context, he explains, “the problem would not be that a 51% attack occurred in the United States,” in relation to the probability that malicious miners decide to attack the state of the network in the majority, “but rather than a regulation Too strict ends in a censorship, for example, of transactions of certain addresses or mining pools ”.
Regulations and a ‘bright future for mining’ for bitcoin
As it happened in China, the possibility that regulations from other countries affect the Bitcoin mining industry is something that terrifies many who make a living today. However, for Hugo Galicia Lara “the regulation is going to be pushed by the people in the middle so that it improves for everyone.”
“The weight of society is going to lead governments to make a transparent regulation, such as bitcoin. There is no way to cheat. “
—Hugo Galicia Lara, Braiins—
In addition, the technical support expert, a native of Mexico, predicted a promising future for the activity: “Mining will continue, at least for bitcoin, and it will evolve in terms of efficiency. All the controversy about clean mining and pollution has led miners to do their best in clean and, above all, cheap energy. ‘
Regarding this type of energy, he clarifies that one of them is hydroelectric energy, but that evolution can also be linked to taking advantage of solar panels making them more efficient.
His teammate, Daniel Frumkin, went even further, enthusing about an “extremely bright future for bitcoin mining.” In fact, in his vision there will be a symbiotic relationship between miners and the energy producer sector in the short term. “They will be best friends for a long time,” he anticipates.
“There is a lot of energy that is wasted, and the miners are the perfect piece of the puzzle to solve that problem. Bitcoin mining also solves other economic problems and enables further developments in infrastructure. It is a beautiful thing for human progress ”, he declares, with evident confidence in what he says.
Braiins up to the South American market
This company is headquartered in the Czech Republic, where it started as an embedded systems developer. “Nothing to do with bitcoin”, as declared by its representatives at the Southern Crypto Summit.
Since its inception in 2011, shared an office with Marek Palatinus, founder of the Slushpool mining pool a year before. In 2013, the two companies merged and Palatinus went on to create Satoshi Labs, the developer of the Trezor hardware wallets.
In this way, Braiins was left with Slushpool, which is not only the oldest mining pool of all – it turned 11 very recently – but is also one of the «6 or 7 largest in the world, with more than 1,250,000 bitcoin mined », they count.
With this baggage on their backs, they officially presented themselves and their products at the event, and they also replicated it in the chat with CriptoNoticias, which can be seen in full at this link.
The next steps are clear: adding more professionals in the region is one from them. This is complemented by the installation of Stratum servers in South America, more precisely in Brazil, as detailed by Frumkin on his Twitter account. This improvement, he says, will allow a more efficient connection between the miners and the pool for the exchange of information. “Latin America is growing fast and we want to support it,” he concludes, giving meaning to his visit, which will surely not be the last.