På trods af udfordringer er nigerianske Bitcoin-minearbejdere klar til at tjene

Dette er en meningsredaktion af Emeka Ugbah, host of the “Bitcoin This Blockchain That” podcast based in Rwanda.

Imagine that you are nursing a cup of caffé mocha in a coffee shop in Lower Manhattan. Then you overhear this African-looking fellow — who, from his countenance, confident demeanor and high-energy voice, strikes you as a Nigerian — saying that he is a Bitcoin miner. You would probably try to get a better glimpse of the fellow, because you immediately think that he is one of them — those scammers who slide into DMs, promising mouth-watering ROIs if you invest in their Bitcoin mining schemes. He can’t possibly be legit.

Ja, jeg ville nok tænke det samme, hvis jeg var i standen med dig, selvom jeg er nigerianer.

Vi ved alle, at Nigeria is considered the African nation with the highest adoption rate of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies — a story that I love to tell. However, having Bitcoin’s proof-of-work consensus mechanism in mind and how dependent on power it is, as well as the fact that Nigeria isn’t a dependable choice when it comes to cheap or stable electricity, er det svært at forestille sig, at nogen betydelig hashkraft kunne udgå fra landet.

Så i sandhed ville du sandsynligvis have ret i at tro, at fyren ikke er lovlig. Men skal du?

Obstacles For Mining Bitcoin In Nigeria

Mangel på pålidelig kraft

Nigeria er 14. største afrikanske land efter landmassors og dens mest folkerige, med en befolkning på mere end 200 millioner mennesker, heraf cirka 52 % bor i byområder. Det er foruroligende at vide, at disse mennesker er afhængige af en deprimerende 4,000 megawatt som nationens elnet formår at generere.

I used the adjective “depressing” because that is the actual state of the power situation in the country. Homes and businesses — from small scale to larger establishments — are often forced to secure alternative power sources or risk staying in the dark and ceasing operations until power returns. These alternative power sources, from petrol- and diesel-powered generators to solar, are supposed to serve auxiliary power in typical scenarios. But in the case of Nigeria, they have now become the main sources of power for many in the country.

So, it’s almost inconceivable that Bitcoin mining can be successful in the country. But it is — Nigeria does indeed contribute to Bitcoin’s global hash rate, and I’ll tell you how as we progress with this conversation.

Uklart, grænseoverskridende, regulatorisk landskab

As with nation states, Nigeria’s stance on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies har været noget stridbar.

Vi husker tydeligt den skæbnesvangre fredag, Februar xnumx, xnumx, when the apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released a statement warning all financial services providers to discontinue any bitcoin- or cryptocurrency-related transactions. And the warning didn’t end there: banks were also directed to freeze the accounts belonging to any individual or entity that had previously utilized the bank’s infrastructure as an on- or off-ramp into and out of cryptocurrency exchanges.

Mange konti blev efterfølgende frosset i henhold til direktivet, som tvang Nigerianere til i stigende grad at vedtage peer-to-peer-systemet for værdiudveksling which was, after all, one of the reasons behind the creation of Bitcoin in the first place: the transfer of value from person to person, without the need of a trusted third party.

På trods af det faktum, at Nigerias Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for nylig udstedt nogle regler der ser ud til at være lidt mindre høgeagtig over for digitale aktiver, er tingene fortsat stort set uklare med hensyn til, hvilken holdning regulatorer vil tage over for minedrift, især fordi minearbejdere (i mangel på et bedre udtryk) "print penge."

Modstandsdygtighed blandt modstandere

Der er et væld af ting - store ting - som nigerianere er kendt for, selvom nogle af de første ting der kommer til at tænke på, når mange mennesker tænker på nigerianere, kan være mindre end tillidsvækkende.

Ikke desto mindre er det også kendt af mange, at en nigerianer kan overleve, og endda trives, under de hårdeste forhold. Dette er tydeligt i det faktum, at en ud af fem personer af afrikansk oprindelse - fundet overalt i verden, uanset hvor ugæstfrit stedet er - er nigeriansk.

As a Nigerian, I can attest to this resilience. We have this innate ability to adjust and adapt to almost any condition, almost anywhere that we find ourselves. At this point in the conversation, the fact that there are Nigerians who have ventured into Bitcoin mining, damning the debilitating odds, shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, right?

It is challenging to determine when exactly the first ASIC based in Nigeria connected to the Bitcoin network, because miners there are putting a great deal of effort into staying as off-the-radar as possible. And yes, I know that the hash rate generated from the country might not amount to as much as a blip or a pulse in the network. As a matter of fact, a fairly-debated datakilde has it that Africa as a whole contributes less than 0.2% of the global Bitcoin hash rate. However, the innovative effort the Nigerian miners are putting into securing the world’s most decentralized, censorship-resistant monetary system shouldn’t go unnoticed — their stories shouldn’t stay untold.

Stories From Nigerian Bitcoin Miners

When I started researching this topic, I was privileged to get in touch with a few individuals who mine Bitcoin in Nigeria. We had long conversations about how they got into it and how they are managing to navigate through the challenges they are constantly faced with. For security reasons, which border around the hostile regulatory landscape I mentioned earlier, they chose to stay anonymous, so we will be referring to them by pseudonyms.

The first individual, let’s call him Kola. Relatively new to Bitcoin mining, Kola began his journey in September 2021 with just one unit of the Antminer S9, which he purchased for about $450 to $500 at the time. According to him, he decided to take a stab at mining with that one ASIC but has since then expanded and acquired seven others, all of which are Innosilicon T2THs, all purchased as used miners from China and shipped to Nigeria. Then, so as not to give room for too many questions from the authorities, especially considering the fact that he is importing “money printing” machines, the ASICs were cleared at customs as computer graphics processing units (GPUs)

Kola chose not to divulge his location, however, stated that his operation is situated somewhere in the north-central part of the country, close to one of the nation’s hydroelectric power sources. As a result of being close to this major source of power which makes it relatively cheap, Kola spends as little as $15 to $20 monthly on electricity to run his operation. However, seeing as the “Nigerian factor” still comes into play, he said that he gets between 20 to 22 hours of electricity supply per day. Being solely dependent on that one power source means that he is subjected to shutting down operations for between two and four hours each day.

Nu, her er en anden interessant smule: På grund af tingenes uklare lovgivningsmæssige tilstand og til de lokale magtmyndigheder, er Kolas minedrift skrevet på bøgerne som en facilitet, der huser servere til cloud storage-udlejningstjenester. Interessant, ikke?

Jeg havde en lang samtale med Kola, og jeg kan blive ved med at beskrive alt det, vi talte om, men denne artikel handler ikke kun om min samtale med ham, så jeg afslutter det her.

Now, the second individual is a more seasoned Bitcoin pleb, who has been in the space considerably longer than Kola. Let’s call him Gbenga. He requested that I keep a lot of what he shared with me about his setup off the record, so I’ll be more discreet with specifics here.

With several Antminer S9 ASICs, all purchased as “used,” and imported from China, again as computer GPUs, Gbenga’s operation is situated in the outskirts of the nation’s largest business hub, Lagos. Much like Kola, Gbenga started his mining venture with a much lower number of ASICs than he operates with now, and he has exponentially expanded, seeing as he is a bigger player in the space.

Gbenga's setup er en af ​​de mange virksomheder i landet, der er afhængige af alternative strømkilder til elektricitet, i hans tilfælde en 200 KVA dieseldrevet generator. Nu ville dette i en ideel situation ikke være et tilrådeligt foretagende, når man tager i betragtning, at prisen per liter diesel i landet går pr. lidt mere end $1 i skrivende stund, og hans drift løber gennem 300 liter om dagen i gennemsnit eller, på dage hvor den får strøm fra nettet, i cirka halvdelen af ​​dagen. Men Gbenga har tilknytning til nogle få store personer i olie- og gasindustrien, så han får diesel til en meget billigere pris, end der kan fås på det åbne marked.

According to Gbenga, his major challenge has been the constant need to maintain and repair the ASICs as they often develop power-related issues due to the unstable supply of electricity. He, however, has a team of skilled technicians and electricians, recruited from the pool of local talents, that didn’t initially have experience working on ASICs, but as a result of working in Bitcoin mining and with Gbenga, have gained the requisite skills.

Bitcoin Mining’s Future In Nigeria

There are so many other Bitcoin miners in Nigeria. A lot of them weren’t enthusiastic to talk to me because they are worried about their safety — for good reason, too. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t big players already in or researching ways to get into the mining space.

We may yet be a long way away from Africa contributing to a large portion of the global Bitcoin hash rate, but with individuals like Gbenga and Kola, as well as all the others within Nigeria and Africa as a whole, along with the ever growing adoption of Bitcoin in the continent, it may not be too far fetched that the future may not be so distant.

The greatest challenge facing it all is funding. We all know how difficult it is to get loans in the traditional financial space, particularly in Nigeria — you have to know someone who knows someone. But the playground will definitely look different the minute that corporate entities and big businesses — from the telecom space, to banking and restaurant chains, which have tons of stranded electricity because they have to keep their facilities running round the clock — realize what Bitcoin is. It incentivises the use of stranded electricity, converts that with the proof-of-work protocol into a store-of-value asset with a deflationary supply, and yields asymmetric returns.

Dette er et gæstepost af Emeka Ugbah. Udtalte meninger er helt deres egne og afspejler ikke nødvendigvis dem fra BTC Inc eller Bitcoin Magazine.