Power-hungry crypto mines clean up as electricity cost rises

Tbilisi, Georgia

VAKHTANG Gogokhia's plan to extract cryptocurrencies from the netherworld of cyberspace relies on a strategy familiar to many old-school manufacturers who use a lot of energy - the cheaper the fuel, the better.

That's why Mr Gogokhia, who heads a startup called Golden Fleece, put a cargo container with Chinese-built computers inside a dilapidated Soviet-era tractor factory in Georgia, about 100km east of the Black Sea. The site made sense for running servers 24 hours a day because it has access to low-cost electricity generated by water flowing from the nearby Caucasus Mountains. There also are plans for solar panels and wind turbines.