Rupam Jain
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The Himalayan nation in Bhutan is exploring ways to use hydropower to mine and leverage green cryptocurrencies to boost their economy and create jobs to reduce brain drain, the CEO of its sovereign wealth fund said.
Green cryptocurrencies are digital currencies mined using clean energy resources such as wind, hydro, or solar, rather than fossil fuels.
The capital says Bhutan is sandwiched between the Asian giants India and China, making millions of dollars in recent years by investing in some of the world’s most popular cryptocurrencies and using some of its profits to pay government salaries for two years, with two senior officials at Thimphu.
“We are a country that operates 100% on hydropower, and every digital coin we use in Bhutan uses hydropower offsets to mine hydropower offsets using fossil fuels,” said Ujjjwal Deep Dahal, CEO of the fund DRUK Holding and Investments Ltd.
“So coins mined in Bhutan will contribute to the green economy,” he told Reuters on Tuesday.
Dahal said the fund controlling Bhutan’s only power generation utility began to increase cryptocurrency in 2019, viewing virtual currencies as tactical investments and the country’s gamechanger.
Bhutan is known for its overall national happiness (GNH) index, which summarizes factors that are overlooked by the overall measures of its factors such as entertainment, emotional well-being and sustainability.
It uses hydropower to operate energy-consuming supercomputers to create digital assets that can be added to the blockchain.
Officials are exploring whether large conglomerates can buy Bhutan’s “green” coins to meet their goals regarding environmental, social and governance (ESG) norms.
“Bitcoin not only provides more value to hydropower energy, but also increases the opportunity for foreign currency liquidity,” Dahar said.
Around 800,000 countries are fighting the emergence of young, educated people. The government estimates that between 2022 and 2023, more than one in 10 young people seek greener pastures, bringing the unemployment rate to 16.5% in 2024.
Analysts say Bhutan’s ambitious plan to become the capital of green digital currency depends on the potential to expand its hydropower generation to 33 GW, compared with the existing capacity of about 3.5 GW.
“We plan to generate 15 GW in the next 10 to 15 years,” Dahar added.
(Reported by Rupam Jain; Edited by Clarence Fernandez)
