Ananya Dutta
Cryptocurrency is a comparatively new thing, even a year back people weren’t taking it seriously, and even today many people tend to consider it as nothing more than a scam. But on the flip side of the coin, financial institutions are beginning to take them seriously which shows just how far cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies have come.
Cryptocurrencies have become a matter of hot debate in most countries and laws are being drawn up in favor or against them. Countries like China, South Korea etc. Fall on one side of the line and have banned cryptocurrencies outright whereas countries like Japan, Taiwan etc. have adopted a more lenient stance.
Recently Fintech firm Fidelity surprised the world when the company’s CEO Abby Johnson revealed that they were not only studying cryptocurrencies, but they have been mining Bitcoin and Ethereum; two of the premier cryptocurrencies for the past 3 years.
They have been using their own computers for the mining and they have also made an undisclosed amount of profits. The operation is based in the US and has been called “modest” by a Fidelity spokesperson. The company started mining as an experiment; to know more about cryptocurrency and the mining process, but due to the rising price of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, their little experiment is now making sizable profits.
Fidelity spokesperson Hadley Stern said, “Think of it as an experiment. The real reason we began mining, and still do, is to learn how the network works, how consensus works, how difficulty levels work.” Fidelity’s mining hub is apparently very low profile compared to the professional mining operations that involve specialized computers and cheap sources of electricity. These cryptocurrency farms are mostly located in China, but now that China has banned cryptocurrencies, the future of such farms has come under question.
Mohith Agadi
Editor
