Since crypto came to the scene, mining and miners have been at the very center of many discussions. Now, with the growing adoption of NFTs and the increasing complexity of mining, many are starting to link the two together, suggesting a fruitful synergy between them.
But, how close is that to reality?
The Mining Dilemma
Bitcoin mining, which involves solving a cryptographic puzzle to make BTC, used to be something that anyone with a computer could do. But now that it’s getting harder and harder to make Bitcoin, it’s become a large-scale business.
Also, the recent halving event has made things even harder for individual miners because bigger players will be putting more pressure on them. Aside from the huge amounts of computing power needed to really have a chance at mining the coin, cheap energy is also needed to keep mining going in the green zone, which is hard to find.
But new developments in the cryptocurrency ecosystem are making mining operations easier and cheaper, so anybody looking for a way to mine Bitcoin can do it. NFT mining is one such promising innovation.
GoMining Expanding NFTs Beyond Digital Art
The mission of GoMining, an international Bitcoin mining firm, is to make Bitcoin mining more accessible.Â
The platform provides an accessible, low-cost alternative to the expensive and technically-savvy conventional mining industry by way of nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Using the innovative Liquid Bitcoin Hashrate, the company assigns the processing power required to mine Bitcoin to NFTs.
People who buy NFTs can get a piece of the BTC mining profits without having to worry about setting up or maintaining the hardware. Each NFT is worth up to 5,000 TH/s.
Scaling options are available to NFT holders, allowing them to easily modify computational power and energy savings with a few taps. Mining payouts are sent to users’ internal or external Bitcoin wallets every day, depending on the strength of their NFTs.
The company offers the GOMINING token and veGOMINING tokens to:
Discounted Energy Costs: Miners can pay for power with the GOMINING token and get 10% off on the price of electricity. For miners, this effectively reduces their operating costs, which makes mining more cost-effective.
Rewards Participation: Miners who stake GOMINING tokens can share in the rewards distributed to governance participants, providing them with an additional income stream beyond mining.
Deflationary Impact: As GOMINING tokens are burned to cover electricity and maintenance costs, the total supply of tokens decreases. This deflationary mechanism can increase the value of the remaining tokens, benefiting miners who hold or stake them.
The Sustainability Impact
One of the most pressing challenges facing both NFTs and cryptocurrency mining is their impact on the environment. The energy-intensive nature of mining, especially through proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanisms, has raised alarms regarding the carbon footprint of blockchain networks.
NFTs, while celebrated for their potential to revolutionize ownership, also face backlash for their environmental footprint. Minting NFTs and processing their transactions on energy-hungry networks like Ethereum contributes to carbon emissions. The intersection of NFTs and mining highlights a larger problem in the crypto industry: the need for greener solutions.
Efforts are already underway to address these concerns. Ethereumâs upcoming shift to Ethereum 2.0 and PoS is expected to reduce energy consumption by over 99%. Additionally, some NFT platforms, such as Tezos and Flow, are adopting more environmentally-friendly consensus algorithms to make their networks more sustainable. However, widespread adoption of such changes remains an ongoing challenge.
The Future of NFTs and Cryptocurrency Mining
As NFTs continue to expand beyond art and into various industries, and as cryptocurrency mining evolves, the intersection of these two worlds is reshaping how we think about digital ownership. However, for this new model to be truly sustainable and lasting, addressing the environmental impacts of mining and blockchain technology will be key. With an increasing focus on energy efficiency and decentralized governance, the future holds promise for a more sustainable, inclusive, and decentralized digital economy, where ownership is not only redefined but also responsible.
