dsbatten on Nostr: Welcome to Finca Koki Costa Rica. (Nostr first story) You’re looking at 60 Ha of ...
Welcome to Finca Koki Costa Rica. (Nostr first story)
You’re looking at 60 Ha of bush clad land on the side of of the Poás volcano, a 1.1MW hydro facility and a bunch of sheds mining bitcoin. It’s about an hour up the road from where I live on a good traffic day.
It belongs to Eduardo Kopper and the land has been in the family for 5 generations, who I met last year.
Here’s the thing: Eduardo was about to lose this land because during covid in 2020 the State Owned Utility said “demand for electricity is down. We aren’t going to buy your power any more”
With a large mortgage debt on the hydro plant, a cash cow became a white elephant overnight.
He went to the bank to say “here are the keys to the property. I cannot finance the loan any more”
But at the same time his son-in-law asked if he’d considered bitcoin mining.
He was highly skeptical but tried it on a single miner. It worked (of course) so he scaled up. The bank loaned him the money to get the first 700 kW of bitcoin mining (provided he called it a “datacenter”) and now he earns more than enough to pay off the loan interest.
He’s made Finca Koki into an eco retreat. Parties of school kids come through. Executives do team building on the adventure and recreation facilities he’s built which include canoeing and zip lines.
He sponsors poor local kids to do camping and life skills building, which his teenage son facilitates.
All made possible because of bitcoin mining.
As we say in Costa Rica
“Bitcoin: El futuro del dinero!”
(Bitcoin: the future of money)
You’re looking at 60 Ha of bush clad land on the side of of the Poás volcano, a 1.1MW hydro facility and a bunch of sheds mining bitcoin. It’s about an hour up the road from where I live on a good traffic day.
It belongs to Eduardo Kopper and the land has been in the family for 5 generations, who I met last year.
Here’s the thing: Eduardo was about to lose this land because during covid in 2020 the State Owned Utility said “demand for electricity is down. We aren’t going to buy your power any more”
With a large mortgage debt on the hydro plant, a cash cow became a white elephant overnight.
He went to the bank to say “here are the keys to the property. I cannot finance the loan any more”
But at the same time his son-in-law asked if he’d considered bitcoin mining.
He was highly skeptical but tried it on a single miner. It worked (of course) so he scaled up. The bank loaned him the money to get the first 700 kW of bitcoin mining (provided he called it a “datacenter”) and now he earns more than enough to pay off the loan interest.
He’s made Finca Koki into an eco retreat. Parties of school kids come through. Executives do team building on the adventure and recreation facilities he’s built which include canoeing and zip lines.
He sponsors poor local kids to do camping and life skills building, which his teenage son facilitates.
All made possible because of bitcoin mining.
As we say in Costa Rica
“Bitcoin: El futuro del dinero!”
(Bitcoin: the future of money)