700 meters inside the mountain and 60 meters below sea level is the Lefdal Mine Datacenter. The old olive mine was transformed into Northern Europe’s largest data center in 2017, and attracted companies with various interests, including a German crypto company. At the start of a new year, ministers Ola Borten Moe (Sp) and Sigbjørn Gjelsvik (Sp) have been invited to the same mine tunnels to mark the move of the Norwegian supercomputer Sigma2. Inside the rock at its new address, the super machine must be safe from natural disasters, war, terror, fire and burglary. The move also represents a shift for the data center, which will no longer be a home for crypto mining. – We consistently say no to all inquiries where we understand that crypto is at the bottom, says Jørn Skaane, who is the day-to-day manager of Lefdal Mine Datacenter. He adds that crypto has “destroyed the reputation of the data center industry”. – There have been several unfortunate stories surrounding crypto. We don’t want to be part of that, he says. Cryptocurrency Photo: Graphics: Tom Bob Peru Aronsen / news Cryptocurrency is only available on computer servers You can buy the currency on the internet and then you get the value in the form of a code The use of the currency goes directly from person to person, without an intermediary such as a bank The the first and most well-known cryptocurrency is Bitcoin Payments are made with cryptocurrency through computer networks The currency uses cryptography – among other things to transmit secure money transfers Creating more “coins” is called mining Mining cryptocurrency requires enormous amounts of computing power, for the calculations and calculations that are carried out, are extremely complicated With an ordinary home PC, it would take millions of years to mine a single bitcoin Economists predicted that the mining of Bitcoin would account for half a percent of the total energy use in the world in 2018 The currencies have no central bank behind them, and no has a monopoly on making new “coins” Municipal and District Minister Sigbjørn Gjelsvik (Sp) started work on a revised data center strategy. Here together with Ola Borten Moe (Sp) in Lefdal Mine Datacenter. Photo: Asgeir Reksnes – The power situation seizes important power resources In May, the Center Party and the Labor Party said no to a proposal in the Storting to ban the most electricity-intensive extraction of cryptocurrency. The rationale was that the government wanted to “avoid a specific Norwegian crypto ban”, and that it was “fundamentally problematic to discriminate against data centers based on a politically defined societal benefit”. When Local Government and District Minister Sigbjørn Gjelsvik (Sp) started work on a revised data center strategy in the autumn, there were nevertheless signs that the crypto factories could be in play. – The power situation is particularly demanding, and crypto-mining seizes important power resources, explained the minister. At the same time, Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) made life for the crypto factories more sour when he canceled the electricity tax discount for all data centers. – We see a development with increased extraction of cryptocurrency in Norway. We need this power for the community, explained the finance minister. – We cannot waste power on cryptocurrency The impression left was therefore that “a particularly Norwegian crypto ban” was not out of the question, symbolized by a bipartisan decision in December in Nordland County Council to introduce just such a ban. In the Storting, Raudt, MDG and SV have pushed to ban crypto factories. With reference to the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, which wants a ban on “the most energy-intensive extraction of cryptocurrency”, Lars Haltbrekken (SV) asked earlier this year what the Støre government is doing to “stop the use of Norwegian power to produce bitcoin, or in all fall sharply reduce this production?” – We don’t have electricity to waste on cryptocurrency mining, says Geir Jørgensen in Raudt. – Nothing is better than if this has now caught on with the government. – If we are going to ban everything we don’t like, the list will be long Fredrik Syversen, director of strategy and business development ICT Norway – At the turn of the year, the government introduced a regulation requiring registration for all data centers in Norway. With this in place, it becomes very easy to distinguish between cryptomining and ordinary data centers. A ban on crypto via law is, I think, impossible to imagine as particularly Norwegian. If we are to ban everything we do not want our power to be used for, I think the list will be very long. We perceive that the government party led by Minister Gjelsvik has shown great understanding of the data center industry, and sees a clear difference between extraction and classic data centres. Analyzes have shown that it is difficult to distinguish between “good” and “not-good” activity in data centres. In order to “punish” the crypto factories, the electricity tax discount had to be abolished in its entirety. Photo: Lefdal Mine Datacenter – The politicians didn’t like color television either. The Brønnøysund Register does not have its own business code for cryptocurrency mining. And there is no requirement to report to the tax authorities that you extract cryptocurrency. Right and Left are impatient Alfred Bjørlo, Left – We are very impatient to get a revised data center strategy on the table. Until now, the red-green government has used the time to brace the legs of the Norwegian data center industry, by introducing electricity tax on all data centers under the guise of targeting cryptocurrency, higher employer tax and other forms of increasing taxes on the Norwegian data center industry. The government must now take inspiration from what private investors in Nordfjord have achieved from green value creation in the district through the Lefdal Mine Datacentre. Linda Hofstad Helleland, Høgre – The important thing for us is increased value creation and jobs, also in the districts. We will ask the government to provide an overview of how many jobs data centers create in Norway, and will not draw conclusions until we have that overview. The feedback from the business community is therefore that it is, purely methodologically, difficult to distinguish between desirable and undesirable activity in the data centres; that attempts to “take cryptomining” are too broad; and furthermore that “no one knows what kind of innovations will emerge from crypto-mining”. The last words belong to Nils-Ola Widme, who is director of business policy at Abelia. – We understand that the politicians do not like crypto. They didn’t like color television either. What is certain is that a ban will hinder innovation in Norway. He adds: – We hope that the government will not ban this, but are afraid that it will happen. – The fight against cryptomining affects the entire industry Kristine Beitland, Authority Contact at Microsoft – We do not expect that a revision of the data center strategy will address a ban on cryptomining. What we expect, however, is that in the budget for 2024 it will be problematic that a liquidation of the electricity tax for data centers now in 2023, in the fight against cryptomining, will affect an entire data center industry. Rather than finalizing the work in KDD with the Ekomloven, where the government can introduce a registration obligation for all data centers to ensure supervision and control. Nils-Ola Widme, director of business policy at Abelia – Datasentera is necessary infrastructure for all forms of further development of Norwegian industry. We expect the government to put high ambitions on the table in the new data center strategy. Bjørn Rønning, day-to-day manager of Norsk Datasenterindustri – The signals we have received from political authorities are clear that it is out of the question to introduce a specifically Norwegian ban against cryptomining. With this as a backdrop, it is interesting to see how the revised data center strategy tackles the problem as long as there is no commercial ban on cryptomining. The reporting obligation in the regulation will give the governing authorities insight into what business is being run in the various data centres, and thus an overview of the extent of cryptomining. NKOM will be the supervisory authority, and will review the information provided by the actors. During the autumn, the government has held several meetings in which business, the parties in working life and parts of civil society have participated. The last recording meeting was on 8 December. Ballangen municipality and the plans for a data center were taken up at Nytt på Nytt. The ministry will reduce cryptomining Gunn Karin Gjul (Ap) is state secretary with responsibility for digitization and electronic communication in the Ministry of Local Government and Districts. She says that the ministry is in the final phase of preparing a guidance document to help ensure that each individual municipality can clarify “what expectations it is realistic to have for a possible data center establishment” and that they “feel that the industry takes the challenges very seriously”. To those who expect a ban on cryptomining, she has the following greeting: – A specifically Norwegian cryptoban will not be a consequence of the revision of the national strategy. – But I can say as much as that we are in the process of investigating various measures to reduce cryptomining.
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The government wants to make life miserable for crypto factories – news Vestland
