Company Name Gridless
Founders: Janet Maingi Erik Hersman Philip Walton
Date of Founded August 2022
The location of the headquarters: Operations in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia| Operations in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia
The number of employees: 10
Website: https://gridlesscompute.com/
Is it Public or Private? Private Investigators
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 explains to Bitcoin Magazine Gridless’ facilities located in Kenya Malawi and Zambia are having a winning-win-win for both the company and Bitcoin’s network. They also benefit the communities.
“Our mission is to mine Bitcoin profitably,” Maingi tell Bitcoin Magazine. “But as we do this, we also do two other things: we push electrification out to the edge in Africa and we decentralize the Bitcoin network, which has historically been very centralized to North America and China.”
Gridless is the first Bitcoin mining company to have set the bar for impact. Gridless shows that Bitcoin mining has a positive relationship with communities and can act as catalysts for growth.
Maingi and I had a personal chat in Kenya following 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 Gridless: How can it help electrify Africa
Janet Maingi Around 600 million Africans do not have access to electricity. This is about two-thirds our population. Private sector is stepping in to fill the gap because main grids don’t reach all of the continent.
The distribution of electricity in Africa is a problem. You will find electricity in the larger cities, like Nairobi or Mombasa. But, in rural Africa you won’t be able to access electricity.
So the private sector set up mini-grids. The private sector has done their best with the mini-grids. They are capital-intensive, so fundraising is difficult. Even when they are set up and running, consumers in your locality may not be wealthy. These people live day to day. The need to think about their future. “Do I need electricity or do I need food?”
Hydro energy is used by the companies who build mini grids. Imagine they wanted to build a power plant that produced one megawatt, but only 200 kilowatts was used by the community. The river generated about 800 kilowatts. But they received nothing.
Gridless would like to introduce ourselves. “That electricity that you’re not able to send to anyone, is what we want.” This is what you would call “stranded” power, or “wasted energy”, and that’s exactly what we are after. Then we are your last-resort buyer.
In terms of revenue sharing, we create a contract to utilize that additional electricity. This is a win-win scenario. These data centers mine bitcoins using that electricity.
Now comes the electrification. Once we use that electricity it becomes a source revenue for the power plant. The energy power plant was not making money before. Now, they do.
What has been the impact? They are now able to expand their distribution network. Second, they have actually been able lower prices. The cost of electricity is now within the reach of consumers that previously would have avoided it. “Hey, hook me up. I can afford to pay for this now.”
Corva: You are, therefore, subsidizing the cost of electricity.
Maingi: Because we are able to use the electricity, energy producers can provide better prices, and expand their reach. What does it mean, once again? The number of homes that are lit will increase, as well as the number of small businesses and factories powered, along with health care centers. Imagine the spiral upward effect.
The challenge of doing business in Africa can be compared to extreme sports.
Corva: Why?
Maingi: Let’s begin with the purchase of equipment. Mining machines are either imported from China (Bitmain, MicroBT) or from the United States. The process to get these into Africa is often painful.
The U.S. sent us a large batch of shipments and we had to wait 60 days or so just to import them. It took 60 days to get them from the ship until they arrived. The logistics of getting miners to site, and going through the pre-shipment checkups for Kenyan standards are not included.
From start to finish, the process takes about 120 days. When you run a business and you have to wait 120 days before your product is available, that’s a painful experience.
These machines work well both in China and the U.S.
But the conditions are very different in Africa.
Corva: What does this have to do with the air quality?
Maingi: Air quality, dust, heat. Kenya’s average temperature ranges from 20-40 degrees Celsius. Imagine the heat these machines must endure when they are operating in an area where temperatures average 30 degrees Celsius.
Then there is dust. If you purchase a container that has been pre-fitted, it is likely the designers have only focused on the inflow and output. Dust is a problem, so dust filters are installed on machines.
In 2022 we discovered that the miner lights attracted insects. During the rainy season, the bugs could see the lights and flew into the fans and got mashed up — something nobody thought about.
Finaly, we were initially going to spend $100,000 on each container. This was way too high for us. We say that the math was not right. We designed our own containers.
Corva: Amazing.
Maingi: Right? We’ve used that technology at half the cost. The advantage of being manufactured in Kenya allowed us to pass through the COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) regionIt’s a COMESA-recognized product, so you won’t have to pay any additional taxes or duties.
It also helped that, because the containers are made in Kenya and we can move them around COMESA without paying extra taxes. Tax exemption is granted. If we had brought the containers to Kenya, and then I moved them to Uganda I would also have to pay Uganda taxes.
Taxes are payable in any country that you import products from. The difficulties have led to some great solutions.
You may have heard about GAMAThe Green Africa Mining Alliance
Corva: Yes.
Maingi: The first Africa Bitcoin Mining Summit We released the blueprints of our container last year. Anyone who wishes to construct their own container from our blueprint is welcome to do so.
We’re always ready to help you. That’s the whole thing about GAMA — How do we exploit our synergies? How can we all benefit? How can we locate a young woman that wants to get into mining, and help her along the way?
Corva: Incredible. The electrification of Africa is something I would like to revisit. Earlier, you mentioned that you would like to provide some figures.
Maingi: Was I saying? There’s an effect on the system when we work with energy producers. More homes and households have been connected.
Have you ever visited rural Kenya? Or Africa for that matter, you know how one light bulb can change a person’s life. Let’s take the children who come home after school. These children are using these paraffin lights to do their homework. These lamps emit fumes that are harmful to their health. There is no alternative plan for this child. This child is expected to return to school having completed her homework. The lack of electricity is no excuse.
When his daughter was busy with an assignment, he said, sometimes the paraffin ran out. The nearest gas station can be found almost 4 miles away. Who will go to the store and buy paraffin? Nobody. Nobody.
The child arrives at school, and she is either in serious trouble for not completing her homework or has fallen behind due to those unquote. “are yout personal problems.” The bulb that they have now is the reason he said. “My daughter is performing so well in school.” It is no longer necessary to visit the hospital for her to breathe in paraffin fumes.
Corva: I think you’re trying to make me cry.
Maingi: There’s nothing to cry about. Note from the author: She doesn’t have fun. It is the truth.
When I was in Zambia, a group of women were discussing childhood vaccinations. 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.
You’ve done your math and are like: “I can’t afford bus fare to do this.” This disease is more severe, so I will give my child the vaccine for it, and this other one I won’t. All of these are essential for kids.
Gridless now brings electricity to more Bondo homes. As more health centers get powered up, more vaccines will be available.
Before you would 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,” More people now have access to it.
As we go on, a younger generation will be born, and we are confident that they’ll thrive. The population will grow. These rural areas will be electrified, and you may see a decrease in the number of children dying.
Corva: It is also my assumption that the energy brought to these areas will help support local livelihoods.
Maingi: Of course. In the Kenyan highlands, there’s a factory that makes tea.
Our partnership with an energy generator allowed them to power the tea factory. Their facilities can now support the tea factories, which is a win-win situation. Tea farmers are able bring their teas to the factory so that it does not spoil in the fields because they cannot get to B on time.
Energy is the basis of progress for humans. This is why we keep telling people that this is going to make a big difference.
Corva: Energy-poor countries are not rich.
Maingi: Maslow’s hierarchy used to be food, housing, and clothing. But I added energy. It is essential to have energy. Energy is a basic need for anyone who wants to lead a normal life. Energy is a key component in the equation for people who want to live a decent life.
Corva: Do you have any software to help with the energy demand response that has recently been developed?
Maingi: Yes. It was clear that real-time response to demand is something we must do more of. Before, either we reacted too late or early to the available power.
We are the last-resort buyer, which means that communities and small business come before us. In order to keep our promise, it was important that we didn’t use electricity needed by others at the time.
So, let me paint a picture. There’s an electricity spike in normal homes when people get up early at six o’clock. Our software receives a signal at that point and lowers the consumption in order to match the demands of the grid. At 8 am, everyone goes to work and turns off the lights. The grid is overloaded. Then we can power up more mining equipment.
The signal is received, we power on more machines. We then suck up the energy and continue to run until 6pm, when everyone has returned home and needs electricity. Gridless switches off their machines, and the power is returned.
We power on more machines at 10 pm. Gridless OS is the software we created internally to do this. Demand response can be done in real time. The grid is stabilized and everyone gets the energy they need.
Corva: Gridless sets standards for others in Africa, or other places around the world.
Maingi: The trend is now being followed by many. Gridless comes up a lot at conferences. You realize that when. “My God, this thing is bigger than we thought.” You begin to see how it has changed the world, and that this doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
There are many ways to mine bitcoin. Each way has a positive effect on the community. Check out Bigblock Datacenter — Sebastian Gouspillou in the Congo — where they’re using the heat to dry cocoa for chocolate They sell. Imagine the economic impact.
Corva: Sebastian has also made me tear up when I’ve met him.
Maingi: We are excited to see African businesses deciding on their own solutions. “Not only will I mine bitcoin profitably and decentralize the network, but there’ll be some benefit to our community, as well.”
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Source: bitcoinmagazine.com
