THEVOICE |

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2021 |

EDITOR ALEX ANTROBUS

Crypto-mining heats North Van

Energy corporations aim to heat homes through Bitcoin production excess

= By LUCASJORNITZ

he City of North Vancou-

ver is plugging into the

world of Bitcoin with a

plan to use waste heat
from Bitcoin mining computers to
provide warmth for businesses and
homes.

Mintgreen, a tech company based
in Burnaby, has formed a partner-
ship with the Lonsdale Energy
Corporation. The LEC is a city-
owned company that provides heat
and power to 100 buildings, includ-
ing apartments, in North Vancouver.
Colin Sullivan, CEO of Mintgreen,
said the company has built a part-
nership with LEC for the past two
years as it developed the heaters it
intends to use in the project.

Mintgreen’s heaters had to
provide temperatures higher than
what was normal for a mining
computer, and the company spent
over a year working to meet the

necessary requirements for LEC.

“They needed additional heat-
ing, ideally, low carbon, and, our
technology kind of arrived at that
point. So it was actually a long time
coming with them. And the fit was
good for what we needed,” Sulli-
van said.

The heat will come from a digi-
tal boiler room that houses Bitcoin
mining computers that are generat-
ing Bitcoin by processing complex
math equations. In the digital world,
these machines generate Bitcoin and
other cryptocurrencies; in the physi-
cal world, these machines produce a
lot of heat. To cool these machines
down, Mintgreen will use a cool-
ant fluid that absorbs the heat from
the machines. A heat exchanger will
transfer the heat to the municipal
water supply, and that water would
be used to heat buildings. The base
of the system is powered through
BC Hydro electricity and, accord-

ing to Sullivan, will offset carbon

oN mintgreen

Mintgreen's proposed heating system designed around mining Bitcoin. PHoTo

COURTESY OF MINTGREEN

North Vancouver could become the site of a new proposed Bitcoin production system, which would bring heating to
homes through cryptocurrency mining. UcAs voRNiTZ PHOTO

emissions substantially.

“We supplant 1,600 metric tons
of COQ2 as opposed to natural gas
per megawatt of heating. This is
hydro-based electricity, we capture
almost all the heat and inject it
directly into their district energy
system via a heat exchanger,” Sulli-
van said.

The project isn’t without criti-
cism, however, as many take issue
with the city being involved with
Bitcoin mining. Former city coun-
cillor and mayoral candidate Guy
Heywood feels that the city’s
involvement with a digital tool that
is inherently outside the regular
financial system is problematic.

“You've got a government that
relies on tax revenue, but support-

ing something that is a known way
to launder money and avoid taxes,
and is absolutely environmentally
irresponsible,” said Heywood.

A representative of the city could
not be reached for comment by the
time of publication.

While the issue involving taxa-
tion is a problem that’s been grow-
ing within the cryptocurrency
world, Sullivan and Mintgreen are
trying to combat the environmental
concerns.

“They're [the LEC] covering a
portion of the electricity, and we're
giving them low carbon heat. We're
incentivizing the decarbonization
of their line, to use just electricity
would be expensive, if not prohib-
itively so. We're essentially subsi-

dizing a clean electric boiler, so it
makes sense for the constituents
on a fiscally responsible level,” said
Sullivan.

Micah Smith, a civil engineer
with Blockchain Infrastructure
Research who has extensive expe-
rience in the power industry, says
cryptocurrencies and renewable
energy are complementary, and that
heat is a natural and useful by-prod-
uct of Bitcoin mining.

“T think that makes a lot of sense
because the only waste of crypto
is the heat,” Smith said. “If you
capture that heat that comes off of
the immersion cooling and use it to
for a productive use, that pokes a lot
of holes in people’s environmental
arguments against it.”

Surrey combats gang recruiting

Surrey tries to
undermine gang
recruitment at
the family level

= By CHRISTI WALTER

he City of Surrey is taking

a new approach to keep

children out of gangs by
trying to help families become
stronger.

Research by a municipal
program funded by
Public Safety Canada [~
found that Surrey chil-
dren with a lack of
connection to their
parents were the most at
risk for joining a gang.

Harmeet Shergill,
Surrey’s community
safety coordinator, said
that during focus groups,
conducted by Surrey
Anti-Gang Family
Empowerment, young people
spoke about their inability to
have hard conversations with their
parents.

“When we asked these kiddos
why they felt like they can’t have
these conversations with their
parents, a lot of them said they

feared their parents would judge
them or compare them with other
children,” she said.

That discovery led Surrey to put
together a series of workshops this
fall to help parents work with their
children to prevent gang activity.
There have been six workshops
so far, most running this week
at a handful of Surrey schools,
exploring how parents with chil-
dren of all ages can build stronger
communication. Each workshop
is being held in a major section of
Surrey.

Surrey has a young population,
with the largest school district

— SGT. LINDSEY HOUGHTON

SUBMITTED PHOTO

in B.C. A 2017 municipal report
found that teenagers with driver's
licences are frequently targeted by
gangs. According to stats for 2014
to 2016 from the Surrey RCMP,
the average age when a gang-
member committed their first
criminal offense is 16 years old.

had, I believe, over
30 parents attend.”

Shergill said the sessions are a
chance to let parents tell their own
stories and open up conversations
about topics parents struggle “to
talk to their kids about.”

Jon Ross, the supervisor of
Surrey’s Wrap Around program
that works with parents and care-
givers to help teens at risk, says
that when it comes to keeping
youth away from gangs, focusing
only on teenagers is not enough.

“Looking at that whole family
system is crucial to make long-
lasting change in a young person's
life,” he said.

Ross said there could be a
number of reasons why
parents have a poor
connection with their

“One ofoursessions | children. They may be
. ca single parents without
was In Punjabi and we support or going through

mental health struggles.
His program sees parents
who are socially isolated.

“They have their own
hardships they had grow-
ing up,” he said.

The workshops also
featured information about gangs
and warning signs for parents
from the Combined Forces Special
Enforcement of BC, a provincial
anti-gang agency. Set. Lindsey
Houghton of the unit said that
B.C.’s geographical location is
connected to its gang activity.

“Our location in the Pacific
Northwest and our closeness to
the U.S. border, our position as a
gateway to Asia. Those kinds of
things definitely play a role,” he
said.

Shergill said session organiz-
ers have tried to reach parents in
culturally relevant ways.

“One of our sessions was in
Punjabi and we had, I believe, over
30 parents attend.”

The feedback from the first
four workshops has been positive,
Shergill said.

“We haven't seen a lot of work-
shops that’s a little bit more inter-
active,” she said. “So, we did try to
do something that was a little bit
different.”

SURREY GANG FACTS
ACCORDING TO SURREY RCMP

» Age

First criminal offense typically
occurs at age 16.

Half of B.C. gang members are
younger than 33.

» Entry Position
Dial-a-doping: the lowest status
within a gang, but one of the
most dangerous, due to its public
facing nature. Involves selling and
delivering drugs at any time, day
or night.

» Location

Not geographically centred.
Surrey gang activity can span
across multiple jurisdictions .

SOURCE: EMPOWERSURREY.CA

Future arrests can be prevented by youth outreach programs, such as Surrey
Anti-Gang Family Empowerment. p/xas4y.com PHOTO