Company Name: Gridless
Founders: Janet Maingi, Erik Hersman You can also find out more about the following: Philip Walton
Date Founded: August 2022
Location The following are some examples of how to use Headquarters: United States | Operations You can also find out more about the following: Kenya, Malawi You can also find out more about the following: Zambia
Number The following are some examples of how to use Employees: 10
Website: https://gridlesscompute.com/
Public The following are some examples of how to use Private? Private
Gridless doesn’t just mine bitcoin — it helps to facilitate the electrification of rural Africa, which is notably improving the lives of those who previously either didn’t have access to power or couldn’t afford it.
Gridless’ co-founder Janet Maingi Explained Bitcoin Magazine how the company’s facilities, which are based in Kenya, Malawi You can also find out more about the following: ZambiaIt is a win,win,win for both the business and the employee. Bitcoin Network and its communities Gridless’ operations.
“Our The mission of mine Bitcoin profitably,” Maingi You can tell them by clicking on the link Bitcoin Magazine. “But As we do so, we also push the electrification to the edges of Africa Decentralization is the key to our success. Bitcoin The network has been historically very centralised. North America You can also find out more about the following: China.”
In Just over two years. Gridless Has set a standard for impact. Bitcoin Mining companys can be a great way to show the world what they are capable of. Bitcoin The mining industry can foster a harmonious relationship with communities and can even be the catalyst to human flourishing.
It was a pleasure to meet you Maingi Person in Kenya after this year’s Africa Bitcoin Conference Discuss the work that she does, and its impact on the community it impacts.
Below is a transcript of our discussion, which has been edited to make it more concise and clear.
Frank Corva: How You can also read about how to get started. Gridless Help to electrify Africa?
Janet Maingi: About 600 millions Africans No electricity. That's about two-thirds of our population. The The private sector stepped up because main grids don’t reach all of the continent.
You'll find that bigger cities like Nairobi The following are some examples of how to use Mombasa You will not find electricity in rural areas AfricaDue to problems with distribution, many people do not have access to electricity.
SoThe private sector started to set up mini-grids. Private Companies have tried their best to make these mini-grids work. However, they’re very capital intensive, and so there are struggles with fundraising. And The consumers who live in the area may still not have much money even after you install them. They're just living day-to-day. They may have to consider “Do I need electricity or do I need food?”
The Hydro energy is used by companies who construct mini-grids. Let's say they want to build one that produces one megawatt of energy, but the community only ends up using 200 kilowatts. There's 800 kilowatts that they generated from the river, but for that 800 kilowatts, they get zero shillings, zero dollars, zero anything.
SoWe at Gridless come in and say “That electricity that you're not able to send to anyone, is what we want.” That's what you call stranded power or wasted energy, and it’s what we want. SoWe become your last-resort buyer.
We Come and make an agreement for the use of that excess electricity. From a revenue-sharing perspective, we will work together. It's a win-win situation. Our Data centers mine bitcoin using electricity from data centres.
But Once the electrification process is catalyzed, it will be able to move forward. When we've used that electricity, it's become a source of revenue for the energy power plant. They were not making money on that electricity previously, and now they’re profiting from it.
What What is the result? One. They are also able to expand their reach and distribute more electricity. And Second, they have actually been able lower prices. So, consumers who are within their reach but wouldn’t use the electricity because of the cost are suddenly saying, “Hey, hook me up. I can afford to pay for this now.”
Corva: So, in a sense, you're subsidizing the rate of electricity.
Maingi: YesWe are able to offer better prices, and the reach of energy generators increases, as we use their power. SoWhat does it mean to say? More More homes will be lit up, and so will more businesses, factories, and health centers. You Now imagine the spiraling upward.
HoweverDoing business is a challenge. Africa It’s like extreme sports
Corva: Why Is that what you mean?
Maingi: So, let's start with just getting the equipment. The Mining machines are made in ChinaYou can choose to either Bitmain or MicroBT, or you’ll get them from a company in the U.S., and the process of getting them into Africa Can be very painful.
We It took 60 days to import a shipment of pens that were imported from the U.S. This It’s all about getting the kids here, from loading them onto a ship. This doesn’t include figuring out the logistics around getting the miners on site and going through pre-shipment inspection to make sure that they meet the Kenyan standards.
It's a process that takes almost 120 days from start to end. If you're running a business, and it takes you 120 days to get your product on the ground, it's painful.
SecondlyThese machines have been designed to perform very well. China Or the U.S.
Conditions You can also find out more about the following: Africa They are not the same.
Corva: Does This has anything to do air quality?
Maingi: Air quality, dust, heat. In KenyaTemperatures range between 20 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit Celsius. SoWhen you run these machines in an area where temperatures average 30 degrees, the energy consumption is high. CelsiusImagine the amount of heat they must deal with.
And then there’s dust. When You can get a container that is already fitted with a lid from China You may find that designers only focus on the inflow and output. But We realized that we had dust problems, and so dust filters were installed on our machines.
And The first time we built the site, 2022, the lights of the miners attracted bugs. During the rainy season, the bugs could see the lights and flew into the fans and got mashed up — something nobody thought about.
LastlyThe containers were initially going to cost $100,000 per container, and that was way too expensive for us to make a profit. The math didn't math, as we say. SoWe designed and built our own containers.
Corva: Amazing.
Maingi: Right? And that's what we've been deploying at a quarter of the price. And The advantage of being a member Kenya The COMESA has enabled us to gain passage (Common Market The following are some examples of how to use Eastern You can also find out more about the following: Southern Africa) region, without having to pay extra duties or taxes because it's recognized as a COMESA product.
That It is also made because Kenya, it's very easy for us to move the containers around the COMESA region without having to pay extra taxes. We Get a tax exempt. Even If the containers are from China It would make sense if they were brought to Kenya It was necessary to relocate them. Uganda. I would be required to pay taxes Uganda, too.
Any You will have to pay tax again in the country where you are moving your products. So, it’s been hard, but good solutions have come out of the difficulties.
Have You may have heard about GAMA. Green Africa Mining Alliance?
Corva: Yes.
Maingi: During First, you can read about the second. Africa Bitcoin Mining Summit We released the blueprints of our container last year. SoAnyone can use our blueprint to create their own containers.
Where you need our support, we'll be ready to guide you. That's the whole thing about GAMA — How do we exploit our synergies? How Do we all benefit? How How do you find and help a girl who wants to get into mining?
Corva: Incredible. Want to get back to electric in Africa. You You mentioned that you would like to provide some numbers.
Maingi: What I was saying is that there’s a ripple effect when we partner with the energy generatThe following are some examples of how to use. We've been able to see more homes or households getting connections.
If you've been in rural Kenya or AfricaThen you will know how one light bulb can change a person’s entire life. I'll use the example of children coming home from school. They Use these paraffin lights to help you study for your assignments. The They are dangerous to health. But this is a child for whom there's no plan B. The The teacher is expecting this student to return to class with all her work completed. Not Having electricity isn’t an excuse.
Paraffin can run out when a man’s daughter is doing an assigned task. When Who is going to search for paraffin when the closest gas station is four miles away? Nobody. Tough luck.
So, the child gets to school and is either in trouble because she didn't do her assignments or is now lagging behind because now those quote unquote “are yout personal problems.” Because of that one bulb they now have, he was like, “My daughter is performing so well in school.” ThenHealth-wise, they no longer have to visit the hospital to get her treated for breathing paraffin fumes.
Corva: It You seem to want me to cry.
Maingi: No, there's no crying. (Author’s note: This woman doesn’t play.) It’s a reality.
ThenThe. ZambiaI recall talking with women about vaccinations for children. Between zero and three years, there are certain vaccinations recommended by the WHO that your kid needs to get — measles, polio, etc. — but the nearest health center that has them sometimes isn’t close.
So, you do your math, and you're like, “I can't afford bus fare to do this.” And so this disease sounds more serious, I'll get my child the vaccination for that one, while this one I’ll pass on. But All of these are essential for the children.
Now, Gridless Coming soon to Malawi Getting electricity providers to provide more connections in homes Bondo area. Health Centers are being powered up so that more vaccines can be found in local health centres.
While before you used to say “Polio sounds serious, I'll get my child that vaccine, but with measles, I don't know who has died of that recently, so maybe, I won’t get my child that one,” now more people can get it.
NowAs we carry on in this way, we are confident that we will be able to produce a generation of youth who we think is going thrive. They're going to grow. You'll possibly get rid of childhood mortalities because these rural areas get electrified.
Corva: And Bringing energy to these areas also supports livelihoods, I would assume.
Maingi: YesYou’re right. There's a tea factory in Muranga, KenyaThe highlands is a region in Scotland.
We The energy generator was able to supply the factory with power. Now, their facilities are able to support the tea factory, which has two benefits: tea farmers can bring their tea to the factory, which means it doesn’t spoil on the farms because they can't get it to point B in time and more employment has also been created just by that tea factory becoming an electrified space.
We Continue to say that the reason we are sure this will have an impact is because human progress is built on energy.
Corva: There’s no such thing as an energy poor country that’s rich.
Maingi: If You can see the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it used to go food, shelter, clothing, but I put energy there. Energy This is a fundamental need. It's a must have for anybody to actually be allowed to live a decent life. For To make it possible for people to live a good life, you need to include energy in your math.
Corva: Is it true that you’ve recently created software that helps with energy demand response?
Maingi: Yes. We We need to be more proactive when it comes to creating a real-time response. BeforeEither we responded too late to power or we did so too early.
Remember we're the buyer of last resort, so communities come first and small businesses come second. For us to be able to live up to that promise, we had to make sure we weren’t sucking in electricity that was required by somebody else at that time.
So, let me paint a picture. In normal households, people wake up at 6 a.m., so there's a surge of electricity. At At this stage, the software receives a signal to reduce our consumption in order to match the demands of the grid. Then, at 8 a.m., everybody goes to school and switches off their lights and there's too much electricity in the grid. That’s when we power more mining machines.
We Get the signal. Power more machines. Suck up the energy. Keep going till maybe 6 pm when the people are home. Gridless Then, turn off the machines.
At They all retire to their beds at 10pm, while we turn up the machines. This This is achieved using software developed by us internally, called Gridless OS. It Allows for real-time customer response. It Stabilizes grid, allowing everyone to get what they want.
Corva: Are You can set certain standards for Gridless Others are also following suit Africa What about other countries?
Maingi: It's set a trend that people are following. Sometimes When you attend conferences, people always refer to Gridless. That’s when you realize, “My God, this thing is bigger than we thought.” And so you start to understand how this has made a difference, thIt is worth mentioning that it doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
At the end of the day, everyone has different ways of mining bitcoin, and there's a positive impact to the community whichever way you do it. Look at Bigblock Datacenter — Sebastian Gouspillou Then, you can get in touch with us. Congo — where they're using the heat to dry cocoa for chocolate they sell. Think This has been a great boost to that economy.
Corva: You think? Sebastian When I met him too, he brought me to tears.
Maingi: What's exciting for us and other players within this space is that we are the ones who understand our problems, and it's exciting to see African companies deciding “Not only will I mine bitcoin profitably and decentralize the network, but there'll be some benefit to our community, as well.”
Every trader who trades cryptocurrency on the Binance exchange wants to know about the upcoming pumping in the value of coins in order to make huge profits in a short period of time.
This article contains instructions on how to find out when and which coin will participate in the next “Pump”. Every day, the community on Telegram channel Crypto Pump Signals for Binance publishes 10 free signals about the upcoming “Pump” and reports on successful “Pumps” which have been successfully completed by the organizers of the VIP community.Watch a video on how to find out about the upcoming cryptocurrency pump and earn huge profits.
These trading signals help earn huge profit in just a few hours after purchasing the coins published on the Telegram channel.Are you already making a profit using these trading signals? If not, then try it!We wish you good luck in trading cryptocurrency and wish to receive the same profit as VIP subscribers of the Crypto Pump Signals for Binance channel.
