Visit of one mining container, in the jungle. 🦍
2022 · BIM (Blockchain In Media) Research Program
· Graphic publication
· Investigation
· Exhibition
U.S.B. #2 · + 4
September 30 to October 14, 2022,
at ESAD Orléans
“The title of this publication, Visit of one mining container, in the jungle (gorilla emoji), references a tweet posted by BigBlock_DC, a French actor in Bitcoin mining, on January 16, 2021. The video filmed in the Virunga National Park (the "jungle" in question) showed the interior of a container filled with machines dedicated to Bitcoin mining.
This graphic publication questions the ecological impact of the Bitcoin blockchain, specifically the mining of this cryptocurrency within the park, which was established in 1925 in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, making it the oldest national park in Africa. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it is home to the last mountain gorillas.
La publication interroge la présence dans la “jungle” de
The publication interrogates the presence of this activity in the "jungle," which exploits the park’s hydroelectric resources, as well as the rhetoric that presents Bitcoin as an accelerator of the energy transition. Amid crypto-colonialism and greenwashing, it highlights the intense contrast between the Virunga Park, the second lungs of the world after the Amazon, and the energy-guzzling mining containers of a French company in a country where less than 3% of the rural population has access to electricity.
”
Marie Lechner
Source text :
https://bim.esadorleans.fr/visit-of-one-mining-container-in-the-jungle/
Link to PDF version
By scanning the QR code visible on the cover, the reader is immersed in the soundscape surrounding and inside the mining containers located in the Virunga Park. The sound creation includes recordings gathered from the X account of the owners of the mining ASICs, as well as recordings from the xeno-canto site featuring endemic bird species from the Virunga region.
Link to the guided tour of the container installation site by BigBlock Green Services, video published on YouTube on August 3, 2022.
Publication cover.
Back of the publication. Screenshot from foundations and parks accepting donations in cryptocurrencies. #CryptoGivingTuesday is a cryptocurrency donation campaign benefiting charitable organizations, organized by the company The Giving Block, aimed at promoting crypto-philanthropy.
A stapled leaflet in the middle of the edition traces the evolution of the container installation year after year, presented as temporary, yet continues to expand nonetheless.