The Ethiopian government is set to enter a partnership with companies from China to establish powerful new Bitcoin mining infrastructure in the country, all centered around a massive hydroelectric dam.
On Thursday, February 14, actors involved with the project announced a partnership between Ethiopian Investment Holdings, a state-owned investment firm, and Data Center Service PLC, subsidiary of West Data Group, based in Hong Kong. Kal Kassa, the CEO for Ethiopia at Hashlabs Mining, initially went to Twitter to claim that “The partnership will be for the purposes of a $250 million data mining project in Ethiopia,” but he would subsequently delete this announcement and replace it with a similar announcement that did not include an exact dollar amount. Regardless of the specific cash commitments involved, the aim of this partnership is clear: the establishment of a data center and other critical infrastructure to supercharge Bitcoin mining in Ethiopia.