While cryptocurrency prices continue to drop amid the bear market, the situation has not impeded the adoption of crypto assets. One of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, Shell, aims to offer its lubricant and cooling solutions to Bitcoin (BTC) miners.
Shell has signed a two-year contract to sponsor the 2023 and 2025 Bitcoin Conferences. The Bitcoin Conference is a crypto convention and music festival held in Miami.
“Bitcoin 2023 will be back in Miami Beach one more time! Education, celebration, and hyperbitcoinization will once again be on the agenda. Join us May 18-20, 2023.”
The event will bring together pundits, investors, hobbyists, and enthusiasts from across the industry to participate in open pane discussions centered on Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry for four days.
As per the announcement, Shell representatives will attend the conferences and speak on the mining stage about improving the energy costs of bitcoin mining with Shell’s lubricant and cooling solutions.
Shell Goes All In on Bitcoin
Shell wants to boost the energy costs of mining Bitcoin by leveraging the company’s lubricant and cooling solutions.
The news followed an announcement by U.S. immersion cooling lead at Shell Lubricants, Darin Gonzalez, saying, “Shell Lubricants wants to give customers alternatives to reducing their carbon footprint.” From the announcement, it follows that the fuel conglomerate will use immersion cooling fluid to give customers an alternative for lowering carbon pollution.
Gonzalez also disclosed that Shell Immersion Cooling Fluid S5 X would be part of the solutions slated for implementation, highlighting that “it is designed to lower energy costs and emissions by “high cooling efficiency, flow behavior, and excellent thermodynamic properties.”
Noteworthy, this is not the first of Shell’s forays into the potency of its immersion cooling solutions toward supporting its data shops. Citing the oil and gas company in a 2021 release, Shell said, “data centers like the ones used to mine Bitcoin accounted for 1% of the energy consumed globally, one-third of which came from cooling solutions.
Shell’s interest in joining the Bitcoin mining space will have a bolstering effect on Bitcoin. The oil and gas company has added to the list of conglomerates that have expressed interest in Bitcoin and the crypto sector. As one of the Bitcoin Conference partners, Shell will achieve a massive drive towards Bitcoin adoption and crypto by extension.
Notably, data centers are also used to mine BTC.
CEO of Bitcoin Magazine, David Bailey, spoke on the matter, saying, “An energy giant like Shell entering the mining space is a big win for Bitcoin.”
Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies headquartered in London, which includes a United States-based wholly-owned subsidiary, Shell USA.
Oil and Gas Companies Exploring Bitcoin Mining
Besides Shell, giant oil companies have also sought to venture into Bitcoin mining. Among them, Duke Energy Corporation, the fourth-largest energy company in the U.S. (arguably), is currently holding discussions around Bitcoin mining.
Chief analyst at Duke Energy, Justin Orkney, announced that the company had “launched a study into the demand for Bitcoin.” Orkney also noted that Duke Energy Corporation is open to collaborating with miners who were part of the Duke DR programs.
News surrounding oil and gas companies drifting into Bitcoin mining comes from financial woes facing Bitcoin miners. Recently, the Bitcoin mining hash rate recorded an all-time high, increasing miners’ difficulty. According to Trading View charts, this comes from dropping cryptocurrency prices, with Bitcoin (BTC) barely sustaining above the $17K levels.
The events could clog miners’ profitability and make it too expensive for them to remain in business. One of the largest Bitcoin miners, Compute North, filed for bankruptcy on September 22, 2022.
In a related story on recent mining news, Binance Pool, the crypto mining services arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, said it aimed to support Bitcoin miners to weather the crypto winter with a $500 million loan.
