It takes a lot of energy for miners to verify transactions and mint new blocks on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. According to Statistica, one Bitcoin transaction consumes every bit much electricity as over 1 meg VISA transactions. Moreover, the cryptocurrency'due south environmental burden increases even more if the free energy used for mining stems from fossil fuels.

But SAITech, a Eurasia-based Bitcoin mining operator with headquarters in Singapore, seeks to recycle the waste matter energy from mining for use in residential, agronomical and industrial applications. The company is likewise undergoing a $228 million special purpose acquisition visitor, or SPAC, merger with TradeUP Global Corp for its stock to list on the NASDAQ commutation. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, SAITech's CEO Arthur Lee discussed the company's heat capture technology, its efficiency, free energy use of mining rigs and the road ahead after its SPAC merger:

Cointelegraph: Would you mind describing your liquid cooling and waste rut recovery technology in uncomplicated terms?

Arthur Lee: SAI is a clean energy crypto mining operator. We offering to host services with leading energy-saving solutions to computing ability and heating. You can regard u.s.a. as a horizontally integrated clean energy company; we provide services for the computing, electricity and heating industries. Only for now, we mainly focus on the Bitcoin mining industry because it consumes so much free energy. We want to detect solutions for the whole industry and make information technology better, decrease the carbon emissions and enhance the efficiency for the entire industry. For at present, we only provide a liquid cooling system, saying we reuse the heat from the miners and provide heating services for our customers, by which we can merely salve the electricity used to exist used for two parts: one is for heating, one is for computing.

But for now, we can just use only [the] part for electricity. Later on we finish the computing examination, we volition provide a heating service. Based on that, we released our carbon footprint and ESG study this year. Through our method, we can prove that we can relieve more electricity and decrease carbon emissions. Nosotros too joined many NGOs, like the U.N. Framework Chat on Climate Modify. We signed a U.N. commitment to reducing the price with clean computing power in the digital asset industry. We aim to provide more services for global customers, not only in Asia but as well in Europe and America.

CT: How efficient is your engineering in terms of recycling rut? Are there any kind of metrics you that are able to share?

AL: I can simplify it as that you use ane part of electricity; we can reuse virtually 90% of it to provide heating services. For the whole system — it'due south an integrated organisation, non just a heating system. Nosotros take four parts of technologies. The commencement i is SAIHEAT, [in which] we use the oestrus from the chip. 2d is SAIWATT; we find more make clean-free energy resources similar hydropower, solar power, air current and other make clean energy. We volition get a meliorate battery for them to solve the energy-saving and energy storage problem. The tertiary i is SAIBYTE engineering. Based on this technology, we provide integrated systems — you know, the mining pool, wallet and blockchain browser.

Nosotros just integrated the functions together and provided the services for customers and the manufacture providers. The 4th technology we will use is SAICHIP. You know, we take amend liquid technologies, which can reuse the heat and a amend cooling system, so we cooperate with manufacturers like BITMAIN and other miners. We will provide our liquid cooling technology to make the miners more efficient, past which we can enhance the efficiency of the whole system. For us, the liquid cooling and heating services is just a outset, but we will reuse them and take a more than efficient system.

CT: Why did you guys choose countries in Eurasia, similar Kazakhstan, to gear up upward the bulk of your mining operations?

AL: Yous know that, before the regulation of People's republic of china, most of the miners around the world were based in China; they use 20% of the whole hash rate in China. After the regulation, many miners want to go overseas like North America, Eurasia, South asia and maybe Europe. For us, the whole of Eurasia is a ameliorate identify for the miners considering, on one side, the miners who become to America volition pay more in penalization taxes. The Eurasia market — information technology's well-nigh China, so many miners from China can go there faster, and thirdly, the energy supply is very efficient. In Eurasia, particularly in Europe and middle Asia, the free energy is cheap and sufficient so that y'all can use more power and inexpensive power. Fourthly, the construction fee and construction costs are cheaper in Eurasia because the labor is cheap and the efficiency is loftier. We think Eurasia is like the Middle Eastward in the oil manufacture and then that Eurasia will be another Middle ast in the mining industry.

CT:Do yous take any data on the total hash rate of all your mining machines, all combined?

AL: Currently, nosotros operate nigh iv,500 units of mining rigs for our customers in Eurasia, and we will expand our self-mining rigs in the side by side yr and provide more hosting services for our customers.

CT: What does the road ahead wait like afterward your SPAC merger? For example, you will expand to countries outside of Eurasia? etc.

AL: After the merger, we plan to get in two directions; the beginning one is R&D. We will enhance our efficiency. At the aforementioned time, we will provide a new product, which is more than efficient and more toll-constructive. 2d, we will aggrandize our market from Eurasia to Northward America and other places. We will provide more than hosting services and enhance the pct of SAIHEAT used to provide heating services. And we will provide more heating services to agriculture, residents and manufacture. We will buy more than mining devices, maybe next twelvemonth, at a proper fourth dimension, build our ain self-mining system, discover more partners effectually the world, like those who have more than clean energy and who accept heating needs, and provide services for them.

SAITech's mining operations worldwide | Source: SAITech Investor Presentation

CT: Are you lot guys taking on any of those [dark-green] initiatives? For example, to help build the local economy in countries like Kazakhstan, anything like that?

AL: I recollect for the Bitcoin industry, merely like the mining and trading companies, they just provide services for the customers. I think mining is more like investment and ownership Bitcoin is like saving. For investment, the miners are regarded every bit a bank to provide establish and settlement services. Suppose the mining company becomes the problem of clean free energy. In that example, they will face more than problems in the future. More people will concentrate on ESG and carbon emission problems, so the whole industry, not only for u.s.a. but for the whole industry, will concentrate on how we could use more clean energy, even save energy. Suppose we tin provide more services with our products. In that case, we reuse the oestrus. For the Bitcoin industry, we provide more than products for the customers. For the whole industry, that means that nosotros can save more electricity consumed, and we will subtract the whole carbon emissions for the manufacture. No one volition worry about more carbon emissions and more energy wastage in this industry.

CT: Would yous like to add any other statement virtually the vision of the company, peculiarly regarding sustainable mining?

AL: Yeah, you know our name SAI, South means Sustainable, A means Available, and I means Innovative, so we want to observe more technologies which can provide sustainable, available and innovative services for the customers, the whole marketplace and the industry. For the states, the whole manufacture is simply like the energy manufacture. And so the energy is the primary cost for the mining services. Perchance the scrap is the second role, and so the electricity is the master part. We are the outset company in this industry to release the carbon footprint and ESG report. Nosotros simply said we have improve solutions like SAIHEAT, SAIWATT and SAIBYTE. We have ameliorate solutions to help u.s. to promote carbon emissions and efficiencies. We want to go a large-scale company that provides services for the mining industry. We are not but doing mining ourselves but too desire to cooperate with other mining companies. We utilise our technology, open-source for them, and nosotros tin can use the technology together. We volition help them reduce carbon emissions and help ourselves discover more electricity. For the whole industry, we will make information technology ameliorate and more than efficient.