Virunga National Park in the Republic of Congo, a place with a troubled history, needs financial help to maintain wildlife and vegetation. This oldest of Africa's reserves is home to an endangered species of mountain gorillas and has faced years of robbery, deforestation, minimal tourism, disease, and little government assistance.
To help restore this unique place, park management decided to invest $200,000 in bitcoin mining through its hydroelectric plant. The decision was made as the park closed in 2018 due to kidnappings by local insurgents, and in 2019 due to Ebola. The covid-19 pandemic led to a sharp decline in tourism revenues (which used to account for 40% of all revenues), leaving park director Emmanuel de Merode with no other choice but to find an alternative solution.
Sebastian Guspillu, a crypto investor, allowed the national park to obtain used ASICs in early 2020 and create the world's first bitcoin mining farm. Electricity is provided by the Luviro hydroelectric plant, which is one of the many river hydroelectric plants that have been built since 2013 (another one is under construction). The energy used to mine bitcoin has no impact on nature, since no dams or reservoirs are used for this purpose.
Despite bitcoin's instability, de Merode remains positive because every day of mining is profitable no matter how much bitcoin fluctuates.
Michael Saylor, co-founder of investment firm MicroStrategy, said:
"The Virunga Park model is the ideal high-tech industry for countries that have a lot of clean energy, but are unable to offer a product or service at a low cost with that energy."
