Finland: Europe's Next Crypto Mining Giant

[TomPluz]

Finland is emerging fast as an attractive place for crypto mining due to its relatively cool climate, which helps with cooling mining rigs, and its abundant renewable energy sources. Finland has a stable political and economic environment, which can be beneficial for long-term investments like crypto mining operations.

Miners in Finland see the country as an attractive location due to the unique situation of near-zero energy costs during periods of overproduction has attracted the bitcoin mining industry to the Nordic region. In 2023, electricity prices in Finland fell below zero due to surging hydropower, nuclear energy, solar, and wind.

Read more here: https://cryptonews.com/exclusives/why-finland-could-be-europes-next-crypto-mining-giant.htm

Now, I will not anymore be worried just in case the United States of America will one day decide that Bitcoin mining is not anymore permitted to be done within the country due to many reasons primarily because it is against the "law of the environment" and can be making climate change even more destructive, as debatable as they can I know. As the cost of power and its availability are important factors for Bitcoin mining's viability and profitability, there is now a wider interest of miners to locate in this region in Finland and the government seems very much open to the idea. Can we then consider Finland to be the ideal location for miners of cryptocurrency today and in years to come?

[Lucius]

At first glance, Finland seems like an ideal country for crypto mining, although it seems to me that there are at least two "problems" for that country to become some kind of "crypto mining paradise".

The first is the fact that Finland is part of the European Union, which at its highest levels has a very negative policy towards everything that pollutes (and EU bureaucrats say that cryptomining pollutes and consumes too much electricity), so I sincerely doubt that Finland would go against the EU's opinion.

Another thing is that Finland is preparing very seriously in the military sense, considering that it has a rather long border with Russia and very negative experiences with it in the past. Regardless of membership in NATO and the agreement with the US on military cooperation and the presence of American soldiers in the country, the risk of a war conflict is still an option that every investor should count on.

[Zed0X]

I don't know much about the country's history but they used to be neutral until the Russia-Ukraine conflict happened. I think not abandoning their neutrality would have made them more conducive for business (including miners). It's different now because of their NATO membership.

[Z-tight]

Now, I will not anymore be worried just in case the United States of America will one day decide that Bitcoin mining is not anymore permitted to be done within the country due to many reasons

I don't think the u.s. government is going to ban BTC mining, but if they do, BTC hashrate is going to take a hit because most of the network's hashrate is from miners in the u.s.. If this happens, many miners are going to relocate to other regions, and maybe Finland would also be a great option, but you must consider what the laws in that region is like, will the government over there welcome BTC mining with open arms, or will they be hostile to it.

[Captain Corporate]

Honestly, there is electricity cost questions but aside from that weather seems to be alright for it, that's for sure. I think the nations who understand the value of it, will all end up investing into mining, even China is trying their best to do whatever they can, it should be important to notice that because if China is going back in, that shows you how important it has to be to do something like this, it must be quite important. I am trying to find good ways this could benefit us as well, but mainly this is good for Finnish people and not us, sure its good to see it, but mainly it will help them mostly.

[Lucius]

I think the nations who understand the value of it, will all end up investing into mining, even China is trying their best to do whatever they can, it should be important to notice that because if China is going back in, that shows you how important it has to be to do something like this, it must be quite important.
~snip~

Some people overestimat Bitcoin mining to the extent that they think it can have significant positive effects on a country, so they think that China lost a lot of money because it banned BTC mining, while on the other hand the truth is completely different. Even if China allowed BTC mining again and all the miners moved there, all that profit from selling BTC would be just a drop in the ocean when it comes to China's economy which has a GDP of over $17 trillion annually.

Bitcoin, as a decentralized cryptocurrency, cannot succeed in a country that controls absolutely everything, and I think that this should already be clear to people. In addition, with 19.635 million BTC already mined, there is not much left, and by the end of the decade we will reach about 99% of mined BTC.

[Z-tight]

I think the nations who understand the value of it, will all end up investing into mining, even China is trying their best to do whatever they can, it should be important to notice that because if China is going back in, that shows you how important it has to be to do something like this, it must be quite important.

Countries and their government do not invest in BTC mining, they don't have much to gain in doing that, Take note that China already banned BTC mining and they are yet to go back on that. BTC mining pools make profit if they have enough hashrate, but the profit is not enough to entice a country to get involved in mining, especially countries that have a good and stable economy.

[bhadz]

Seriously? cost of electricity there at some point reduced to zero because of their renewable energy? That's ideal for miners and I think any country there that's too cold and have that climate is really a good one. I've seen on a video about a mining facility in Iceland and it's a good one. Having this situation in environmental and political stability, it truly is an ideal place for miners or the government should be the one investing on it.

[Baofeng]

I think the nations who understand the value of it, will all end up investing into mining, even China is trying their best to do whatever they can, it should be important to notice that because if China is going back in, that shows you how important it has to be to do something like this, it must be quite important.

Countries and their government do not invest in BTC mining, they don't have much to gain in doing that, Take note that China already banned BTC mining and they are yet to go back on that. BTC mining pools make profit if they have enough hashrate, but the profit is not enough to entice a country to get involved in mining, especially countries that have a good and stable economy.

China ban it because they think that it has negative effect on the environment. But prior to that their government didn't care about it. But when there are a lot of Chinese making money, and most likely this is the case why they ban it. Because we know how authoritative this regime is, and they don't want their population to get rich and have that financial freedom. Even Jack Ma was not spared by the Chinese government and they are just hiding for the reasons that they ban it because of the supposedly bad effect to the environment. It's more than that.

For Finland, I think they can only become a crypto hub if they will developed a sustainable and very efficient mining practices. They are developed country already and as such if they allow mining there, it should be environment friendly so that bitcoin mining operations are going to bolster their economy more. Imagine some of the biggest mining firms going to them because of their good mining practices.

[ABCbits]

I read whole news, but this part makes me doubt Finland could be next mining center.

“Wind energy, by nature, is variable and depends on wind conditions. As a result, when wind conditions are favourable, there’s an overproduction of energy, leading to instances where the price of electricity can drop below zero, reaching as low as -0.3€/kWh. Conversely, during periods of low wind, underproduction can occur, causing electricity prices to spike, at times reaching up to 2€/kWh,” said Keinänen.

I wonder how many miners willing to bet that Finland would overproduce most of the time.

[Lucius]

@ABCbits, it seems to me that Finland is a fairly windy country, although there are probably periods when the wind is weaker than usual. What the facts say is that Finland covers slightly more than 18% of its needs from wind energy and that capacities and production are increasing year by year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Finland

Besides wind, Finland also uses its hydro resources and solar energy, which could be an alternative to crypto miners when the opportunity arises. However, I would like to point out that, apart from Finland, countries like Norway and Sweden certainly come into consideration, although I think that all these possibilities should be seen from a political perspective in the first place.

[Stompix]

I read whole news, but this part makes me doubt Finland could be next mining center.

“Wind energy, by nature, is variable and depends on wind conditions. As a result, when wind conditions are favourable, there’s an overproduction of energy, leading to instances where the price of electricity can drop below zero, reaching as low as -0.3€/kWh. Conversely, during periods of low wind, underproduction can occur, causing electricity prices to spike, at times reaching up to 2€/kWh,” said Keinänen.

I wonder how many miners willing to bet that Finland would overproduce most of the time.

Finland is still a net importer of electricity!
Just because you have some hours when you have negative prices doesn't mean electricity is cheap, Netherlands and Spain often experience this, but it still doesn't mean the average is cheap.
As we speak:
https://www.rte-france.com/en/eco2mix/market-data
Spain and Portugal are flat 0 per MW for nearly 6 hours but you don't see news of mining farms moving there. Scroll to yesterday and you're going to see that for 5 hours half of Europe was at 0-2 euros per MW.

Can we then consider Finland to be the ideal location for miners of cryptocurrency today and in years to come?

Finland is a net importer so it will need extra electricity to host miners.
But let's just ignore that and let's say they will give away 25% of the entire country production for Bitcoin mining.
That would be (70Twh/4) 17.5Twh,  an S19 consumes 30Mwh a year, so you're going to be able to host around 500k of them, so less than 10% of the entire hashrate assuming again they will magically produce 25% extra from what they produce now.

You can't create a competitor for a country that has 32GW of mothballed capacity from one that has 19GW total capacity.