The Digital Gold Rush, Now in Canada
“Canadian industry has had several failed attempts to host this type of business and has, unfortunately, let those opportunities go to Iceland or other locations in Europe instead. This is unfortunate as it is a very significant vertical market. We believe we can create a magic formula of service, cost of power, infrastructure build, and speed to market, that going forward, will attract and capture a significant percentage of the overall world demand.”
– Nicholas Jeffery, CEO, Uniserve
You have likely heard of Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency that was released in early 2009. Now, similar digital currencies have crept into the worldwide market including a spin-off of Bitcoin called Bitcoin Cash, as well as Litecoins, Dogecoins, and Feathercoins. (For a great primer on the accidental invention of cryptocurrency, read “What is Cryptocurrency: The Ultimate Guide” by BlockGeeks.)
Cryptocurrency money isn’t printed – it is discovered, or “mined”, just like gold. Computers around the world “mine” for bitcoins by competing with each other, which you can imagine is resource-intensive. But mining cryptocoins is an arms race that will likely reward early adopters.
According to Techcrunch.com, a leading online media source, the market valuation for cryptocurrencies has increased to over $177B USD as of October 2017, and continues to grow – and now, Uniserve is putting cryptomining (or cryptocoin mining) on the Canadian map.
A recent agreement with a privately held organization, whose mission is to become the preeminent cryptocurrency miner in Canada, has Uniserve hosting a large-scale cryptocurrency mining facility in Vancouver. The data centre is being expanded to accommodate this anchor tenant, headquartered in New York.
The success of the agreement came from a combination of the cost of available power in the Vancouver location, as well as their ability to lift, shift and install product. A secure monitoring platform, enabling the client to dial in remotely, was also a key factor (Uniserve will also be providing Managed Services to the client).
Says Jeffery, “The cost of power is a significant driver for the hyper-scale cloud and the cryptocurrency vertical, and having access to some of the lowest electricity rates in Canada contributed to Uniserve being selected by the Miner. But also, our global experience in the Data Centre space and the ability to design the infrastructure to the Miner’s specific needs was also a distinct advantage. The Miner is expected to ramp up to large-scale mining rapidly, resulting in significant power consumption in the 10’s of megawatts, with plans to reach 40 MWs by 2020.”