Three months after announcing their plans to engage in Bitcoin mining in Latin America, Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, is readying to deploy their first rigs. According to chief technology officer Paulo Ardoino, Tether Energy is operationalizing their miners at a disclosed location in Latin America. 

In a tweet on August 26, Ardoino, dismissing speculations and rumors, said the site is “progressing well, and everyone in the team is super excited and working around the clock to start operations in the next few weeks.” However, to prevent unnecessary “harassment,” the CTO chose not to divulge the exact location of the mining farm.

As of August 26, it is not immediately clear when Tether Energy will exactly connect to the Bitcoin network and strengthen the world’s largest crypto platform, competing with other established mining pools and farm operators like Riot Blockchain or Marathon Digital. Instead, what’s evident is the commitment of the USDT issuer and their resolve to accomplish their goals despite what Ardoino said is increasing vitriol from “some paid groups, desperately hoping to have found the holy grail of their anti-Tether theories.”

Tether said the decision to launch a Bitcoin mining farm is strategic, and hopes to further decentralize the network by distributing rigs worldwide sustainably. Bitcoin remains the world’s largest blockchain network that uses the proof-of-work consensus algorithm. 

In this setup, miners must operate expensive rigs for a chance to receive block rewards of 6.25 BTC, dispensed by the network roughly every 10 minutes. While lucrative, mining is energy-intensive and requires miners to update their rigs to remain competitive regularly. 

Considering the high energy demands and expense associated with gear, some networks, including Ethereum, have opted to use parallel consensus, including staking, as an alternative. Still, some analysts consider proof-of-work systems more robust and secure despite environmentalists’ concerns about the ultra-high energy consumption powering these platforms. 

Trackers on August 26 revealed that Bitcoin is powered by the same amount of electrical energy that can power the whole of the Netherlands. Even so, more miners assert that Bitcoin mining is clean and powered by renewable energy.

It still needs to be determined whether Tether Energy will launch from Uruguay, per early reports. In late May, Tether said they plan to “harness the power of Bitcoin and Uruguay’s renewable energy capabilities” while ensuring that ” every Bitcoin mined leaves a minimal ecological footprint while upholding the security and integrity of the Bitcoin network.”

Featured image from Canva, chart from TradingView

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