How does it work and who is behind the first "blockchain factory" in Argentina and in the region?

In Tierra del Fuego there are several plants that produce a large part of the electronic equipment consumed in the country. But there are also other factories, that although they are of the technological category, they do not produce any article.

This is BitPatagonia, the first datacenter with blockchain technology, that is, the first farm in Argentina -and in the region- of servers installed to process and solve algorithmic problems that allow obtaining cryptocurrencies as a result.

"We chose Argentina, specifically Patagonia, to make this adventure and be pioneers in the blockchain ecosystem of the Southern Cone.The challenge is to be a mirror of Canada," says Miguel Klurfan, CEO of BitPatagonia, and co-founder of the company with Diego Pando, Walter Salama and Rodrígo Benzaquen.

"In addition, we grouped 70 Argentine investors who accompanied us in the risk of investing in our country and not in another destination where the industry was also generated, as is the case of Canada."

The choice of location was not hazardous, but has a practical purpose: Tierra del Fuego has low temperatures and high presence of winds, two key meteorological issues for the development of the industry of these new datacenters.

In this sense, Canada is one of the territories that more mining farms attract, some of them led by Latin American entrepreneurs. In fact, when they started with this project, they had several invitations from that country to base their business there.

"We decided not to put the investment in Canada or Paraguay and we destined it to Argentina, and from the name there are several anchorages in the national, knowing that the costs were going to be higher and that the expertise in the development of suppliers was not yet But we want to add value to the local ecosystem, "says Klurfan in a telephone conversation with iProUP.

In this sense, they point out from the company, Tierra del Fuego is doing an excellent job facing 4.0 industry, to the point that it was the first province to hold an event with a large international call, at the beginning of October. There, the focus was placed on the development of the blockchain ecosystem as an industry and the interest in contributing to the reconversion of the Fuegian industrial matrix.

The construction
Although the Fuegian climate is ideal for this industry, BitPatagonia made an effort to make a very efficient layout in order to make the most of it. "If good ventilation and renewal of the air is not achieved, the heat generation of the machines can reach 120 degrees, there were no previous experiences, the closest thing was a steel mill," Klurfan admits.

In this regard, the entrepreneur described that for the design they used "a natural and sustainable cooling system, since the natural cold air flow itself cools the machines". In addition, they installed racks of six meters in height to optimize the square meters.

At present, they have two spaces to develop the business. One in Ushuaia, in a plant that they rent to Newsan; and another in Rio Grande, where they use the property of a construction company. Each of these plants occupies an area of ââclose to 400 square meters.

"We developed infrastructure, electrical and thermodynamic ventilation systems, and had to train installers because the wiring is almost surgical, and more if it is multiplied by the number of machines," says Klurfan.

Besides the cold, another resource is the availability of economic energy. "We use about 4 megawatts of energy between the two plants," says the businessman. And it defends itself from criticism: "We consume the electricity that is available to the industry, we have a quota officially assigned by energy companies like any other company on the island."

The business
To start up the plants, Klurfan points out that "$ 240 million was invested in the country, even though the costs abroad could be lower".

"Our local suppliers have paid taxes to the province for our disbursements, and another important point is that we have come to contribute to the creation of new employment for this new industry and to become a homeland by being the spearhead of this coming industrial revolution," he says. the manager.

And it completes: "We are contributing together with other actors to generate an ecosystem in Tierra del Fuego so that the electronic manufacturing industry can be converted to a more service, datacenter and cloud industry".

The main objective of the mining is to explore the world of blockchain - the underlying technology of bitcoin and other altcoins - that promises to revolutionize the global economy.

In addition to the four founders, there are a number of investors participating in the project. According to the executive, these are large local entrepreneurs, many of whom were involved under the "smart money" scheme. This means that they not only contribute funds, but also their expertise.

Although he preferred not to name names, Klurfan said that among them there are great entrepreneurs in the field of technology, finance and health, among other areas. The choice has a reason, since among the possible applications of the blockchain the following stand out:

- Traceability of medicines: you can know how they were treated since they left the laboratory until the patient receives them. This is vital for those drugs that require refrigeration.

- E-commerce: cryptocurrencies are becoming a means of payment

- Clinical histories: patient information can be stored in a unique database, inviolable and easily accessible.

- Banking: the blockchain allows users to know real information without the need for a third party to prove it, and the exchange of digital assets will streamline processes related to the transfer of assets.

But the entrepreneurial ecosystem is also interested in the project. In fact, Klurfan said that "many initiatives are coming from young people who are doing development on blockchain", which analyze and try to accompany. Because, as he repeated again and again in the interview, one of the main purposes of the company is to bet on the blockchain development of the country.

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