Bitfury Newsroom

Cryptocurrency miners have tried just about everything to keep their super-fast machines cool. They’ve moved them to Siberia and submerged them in vats of oil. One startup buried its mining rigs in a chilly Soviet-era bunker beneath the Eurasian steppe. But even by crypto industry standards, the 40 megawatt plant Bitfury built in Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi is exotic. It submerges the computers in a non-conductive liquid to keep them chilled as they make millions of calculations a second.

The Bitfury Group announced today that Crystal Blockchain Inc. has joined the Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies (ASCIA) as a gold-level corporate partner. Crystal Blockchain is the team of experts who built and support Bitfury’s blockchain analytics tool Crystal, which is designed for law enforcement and financial institutions to view and track transactions and related entities on the Bitcoin Blockchain. Crystal Blockchain joins an extensive list of ASCIA members, including state bureaus of criminal investigation from almost all 50 U.S. states.

The Bitfury Group today named Jeffrey Mason as Head of Bitfury’s operations in Canada, underscoring the company’s continued expansion in the country. Mason will lead Bitfury’s growth in Canada, identifying new partnership opportunities in one of the world’s most dynamic markets and working closely with the company’s Canadian subsidiary, Hut 8 Mining Corp.

A syndicate of investors including Angelvest, Bitfury, and a consortium of cryptocurrency traders is making a $3 million equity investment to the AI application development platform Dbrain.

Val Vavilov, CEO of Bitfury Group, advised that “Korean blockchain market needs smart and balanced regulation so that it does not discourage innovation.” He said the regulators should be educated and consulted with technology experts to come up with the most efficient and effective solutions. He expanded his business to Korea as it often on the forefront of new technology and has shown significant interest in cryptocurrency. He sees great potential in Korean blockchain market.

For the fourth year in a row, the Blockchain Summit took place at a Virgin Limited Edition property – this year at the beautiful Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco. Hosted by the Bitfury Group and ACTAI Global, the summit brought together innovators, government officials and thought leaders from around the world to discuss the many ways blockchain technology can improve systems and services people use every day.

It is this interconnectedness of the global economy that another participant of the Blockchain Summit thinks is central to blockchain’s ability to do more than just break down borders. Summit co-host and co-founder of blockchain startup Bitfury, Val Vavilov, explained how he thinks the nature of competition itself could eventually be undone.

It’s no secret that women are underrepresented in the crypto world. While women in the space may disagree on whether the topic is worthy of discussion or not, one thing is clear. They’re not going to sit in the sidelines while their male counterparts ride the blockchain wave. Featuring Rachel Pipan, Senior Communications Manager for the Bitfury Group.

Some of the brightest minds in the blockchain space are currently gathered at Sir Richard Branson’s Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco. The Bitfury Group and ACTAI Global’s Fourth Annual Blockchain Summit was forced to relocate from its usual destination of Necker Island after the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma became a reality. Instead of shifting locations to a randomly chosen destination, the event should be hosted somewhere that made sense in the context of the important conversations being had about climate.

Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson literally stood up today at his resort in Marrakesh, Morocco, and committed his Virgin companies to ending the use of single-use plastic. Like a set of dominoes in reverse, the audience, comprising about 30 blockchain entrepreneurs, a senior-level government official, retired regulators and more, stood up beside him and in front of him. Branson was speaking on a panel called “Saving the Planet (A Bit at a Time)" during Bitfury's annual Blockchain Summit.