Bitcoin, heavily criticized for its high consumption of energy, is being used to conserve natural resources and generate income for one of Africa's most popular National Parks.

How ironic?

Virunga National Park, Africa's oldest National Park, was created way before the idea of cryptocurrency even came about. So how is this Park reliant on Bitcoin to save its resources?

Read on to get the full gist.

Virunga National Park is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is known to be the continent's most historic National Park. The Park is a habitat to over a thousand species of animals with an abundance of natural resources.

However, the Park has faced a number of challenges which has forced it to close its "doors" to tourists multiple times and this has led to a significant decrease in the total revenue accumulated from tourism. In an interview, the Park director, Emmanuel de Merode reported that the Park has had to shut down tourism over the years due to a number of reasons like kidnapping, Ebola virus, Covid-19 pandemic, etc.

Some of the other challenges the Park faced were militia attacks on the wildlife and forest rangers, deforestation, little to no assistance from the government among other things. The Park, as a result of these issues, was at the risk of losing it all until the idea to use bitcoin came about.

Bitcoin Mining Saving Virunga National Park

Multiple efforts to preserve the Park proved futile until 2020 when Emmanuel had to turn to bitcoin mining. By September, 2020, mining rigs had already been set up in the park. The mining rigs use hydro-electricity to mine bitcoin, thereby monetizing the park’s natural resources. Think of it as bitcoin mining-as-a-service. The funds generated from this is used to maintain and preserve the park.

This wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Sébastien Gouspillou, CEO of Big Block Green Services, who saw the potential for Virunga to use mining as a source of revenue by utilizing and monetizing the Park’s natural resources. He then presented the idea to Emmanuel de Merode in 2019 before BTC mining rigs were set up in 2020.

Talking about natural resources, the mine is powered by hydro plants, using the most abundant natural resource on planet Earth, water.

Water ➡ Electricity ➡ BTC ➡ $$$

(Is it funny that as I was typing “BTC”, the part where Ayra Starr sang “bitcoin dy my wallet like this” in OVERDOSE came up?😅)

Conclusion

This is a beautiful piece that not only aims to shed light on the role Bitcoin played but also to create awareness about this Park, because honestly, you’d be intrigued by what you see.

You might not understand what I’m saying if you haven’t read about Virunga National Park or read stories of rangers who have died over the years trying to protect this Park or had a glance at the beauty that lies within the 7,800 square kilometers.

A 2-mins Google search will leave you thirsty for more, I promise.

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