Seven times Bitcoin miners made the world a better place

What do a swimming pool, beef jerky, a caravan, timber, animal waste, a Guatemalan lake and a high school have in common?

They’ve all been saved by Bitcoin (BTC) mining. From reusing “waste” heat to getting the job done — to receiving a cool blast of air to dehydrate meat, to cleaning up pollutants, Bitcoin mining does more than just secure the network.

Here’s a round-up of seven times Bitcoin mining lent a hand or simply made the world a better place.

Free Bitcoin mining education in Washington

Sustainable Bitcoin mining company Merkle Standard has taken Bitcoin mining education into its own hands. In partnership with Bitmain, they recently gifted the latest in Bitcoin mining technology to Newport High School, a high school in Washington state.

Plus, they donated $10,000 and are promoting education about Bitcoin in the hope that it will, “plant a seed that encourages lifelong interest in blockchain and digital mining.”

Along with the check, Ruslan Zinurov, Merkle Standard’s CEO, told Cointelegraph that they will also invite students to their “data center to check on their machine that is hashing to their school’s wallet.” Zinurov told Cointelegraph:

“It is our top priority to get the community excited about Bitcoin and we can’t think of a better way to do this than to educate the local students.”

Adam Delderfield, business development manager at Bitmain — the holding company for the Antminer Bitcoin miners — told Cointelegraph, “Digital currency mining proceeds from this gift will go directly to education,” adding that “Bitcoin mining and proof-of-work represent an exciting new industry that opens up numerous new opportunities.”

Adam Delderfield from Bitmain in the suit, and Monty Stahl from Merkle Standard with the students. Source: Bitmain

Bitcoin miner beef jerky cooked up by the Business Cat chef

Bitcoiner Business Cat, who wishes to remain nameless, uses the heat vented by Bitcoin mining to dry out meat to be made into beef jerky. They told Cointelegraph, “Bitcoin miners have one hell of an excess of supply of dry, heated air,” so it makes sense to funnel that heat over strips of beef to make jerky.

Good temps for jerky so far #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/0WPnTuNwnF

— ₿usiness Cat (@_business_cat) April 4, 2022

Similar to Merkle Standard, for the Business Cat, the jerky cooking process is not about making money: “My normal food dehydrator uses much less energy than an S9, but hashpower dried jerky just tastes better.”

They told Cointelegraph that “the support of the plebs on Bitcoin Twitter” persuaded them to try out the idea. They joked that “most of us [Bitcoin plebs] are natural loners, so a few words of praise or support from others on the path goes a long way.”

The Bitcoin community is increasingly supportive of ideas that promote Bitcoin philosophy and Bitcoin-only ideas, from a Bitcoin hostel in Portugal to a Bitcoin lake project in Guatemala.

*The modified Bitcoin miner that cleans the air while funneling it for use on food. Source: Twitter*

Business Cat is delighted with their experience and suggests others take up home mining. They combined life advice with Bitcoin mining advice explaining to Cointelegraph:

“Should you mine Bitcoin at home? Yes. Should you learn to be a better chef? Also yes.”

Bitcoin heats my swimming pool

Bitcoin enthusiast Jonathan Yuan found a cheaper, faster and more stable way of heating his swimming pool in Minnesota, all thanks to Bitcoin mining.

Thanks to immersion heating, Bitcoin now powers up his pool. Even though Yuan doesn’t care for swimming, his kids are happy to swim in the pool while he secures the Bitcoin network.