AFP, published on Sunday, December 11, 2022 at 05:23
Tulips and bitcoin have both been associated with financial bubbles, but in a gigantic greenhouse near Amsterdam, the Dutch have now found a way to make them work together.
In the greenhouse, Bert de Groot, an engineer, inspects the six bitcoin servers that perform complex calculations to generate cryptocurrency, letting out a lot of noise, but also heat.
This heats the greenhouse where rows of tulips grow, reducing farmers’ dependence on gas, the price of which has skyrocketed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
With a difference of 20°C between the air entering and leaving the machines, the temperature reaches an ideal level for the growth of tulips and the drying of bulbs.
The servers are in turn powered by the solar panels installed on the roof, which reduces both the energy bill – normally very heavy – linked to bitcoin mining, and the consequences for the environment.
Meanwhile, tulip growers and Bert de Groot’s company Bitcoin Brabant are earning cryptocurrency, which is still attracting investors despite the recent market crash.
– “Tulipmania” –
The philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb – who developed the “black swan” theory, according to which an unpredictable event has great consequences – compared bitcoin to “Tulipmania” in the Netherlands.
The Dutch’s love of tulips indeed caused the first stock market crash in the 17th century when speculation in the value of bulbs caused prices to explode and then plummet.
At the height of the financial bubble, the price of a single bulb was equivalent to more than 100 times the average annual income of the Dutchman at the time. Before it broke out in 1637, causing bank failures and the loss of citizens’ savings.
Danielle Koning, 37-year-old flower grower and owner of the farm, sees the association of the tulip and bitcoin favorably, despite their checkered history.
“We think that with this way of heating our greenhouse but also of earning bitcoin, we have a win-win situation,” she told AFP.
Almost four centuries following the crisis, the Netherlands is the largest tulip producer in the world and the second largest agricultural exporter behind the United States. A large proportion of crops are grown in greenhouses.
– “To preserve the environment” –
The country, partly located below sea level, remains well aware of the effects of this industry on the environment.
To which must be added, since the start of the war in Ukraine, the soaring cost of energy.
However, cryptocurrency mining requires huge amounts of electricity to power the computers that generate these valuable digital currencies.
Such consumption inevitably contributes to climate change.
Bitcoin and tulips therefore form a perfect pair according to Bert De Groot, 35, whose company founded at the beginning of the year has 17 customers, such as restaurants and warehouses.
“This operation is actually carbon negative, as are all the operations I build,” says the long-haired engineer.
“We are actually preserving the environment,” he says.
Danielle Koning’s company asked not to reveal the exact location of the greenhouse and its servers, which are each worth 15,000 euros, to avoid attracting thieves.
– “For all time” –
His company owns half of the machines and keeps the bitcoins they produce. Every month, Bitcoin Brabant teams come to clean the dust and insects in the fans.
“We save natural gas”, and “secondly, we earn bitcoins by generating them in the greenhouse”, rejoices Ms. Koning.
Several Dutch agricultural companies that produce in greenhouses have recently gone bankrupt due to rising energy prices, she explains.
A bitcoin is currently worth around 16,000 euros, much less than in November 2021, when it was worth more than 65,000 euros, but Bert de Groot is not worried: “Bitcoin is here forever”.