Brooklyn bathhouse reveals use of heat from Bitcoin mining
The Bathhouse in Brooklyn (New York) has admitted using heat from mining rigs to heat pool water. Customers reacted to the decision with mixed reactions.
Most of the Bathhouse’s Instagram followers voiced their support.
“Thank you for strengthening network security, resisting authoritarianism and delivering financial freedom to people,” one of them noted.
Another commenter described Bitcoin mining as ‘an excellent way to heat the pools’.
“Congratulations on using heat in a sensible way—by heating water and supporting financial freedom,” said in a message from ymondoux.
However, a number of customers were concerned about cryptocurrency mining at the Bathhouse. They expressed concerns about who profits from the operations, and invoked the widely circulated narrative that mining harms the environment. One said visitors need ‘clean heat, not dirty byproducts’.
“Thanks, I won’t come again”, wrote clinton.n.
Critics of Bitcoin mining point to the high energy consumption of the cryptocurrency network, which leads to an increase in the carbon footprint. Proponents of digital gold note that the industry is increasingly using renewable energy sources.
But Bitcoin mining equipment emits a substantial amount of heat. Bathhouse is not the first to attempt to harness it.
In Norway, the company KryptoVault used heat from mining to dry algae and wood. Despite the company’s contribution to the local economy, residents opposed it because of another side-effect of cryptocurrency mining — noise.
Authorities in the Canadian city of North Vancouver were developing a project to provide heat to 100 residential and industrial buildings through Bitcoin mining.
WiseMining in 2021 introduced a water boiler based on an ASIC installation.
In autumn 2022, the miner MicroBT, together with Heat Core launched a pilot project in the United States to use the emitted heat to heat fish incubators, greenhouses and spaces.
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