Summary
The Bathhouse, a spa in Manhattan, uses Bitcoin mining machines. The machines run constantly to find new Bitcoin and safeguard the Bitcoin network. The heat they generate from their activity is extracted via pipes, and powers the Bathhouse’s heated pools.
Bathhouse started operating in Brooklyn in 2019, offering heated pools, cold plunges and saunas to New Yorkers. The company now has 12 ASIC computers (a type of computer specializing in mining) running in Brooklyn and 20 ASICs in Manhattan.
The company earned 1.5 Bitcoin last year: about $90,000 in today's prices. Goodman plans to hold onto the Bitcoin they earn rather than use it to pay for operating expenses.
In Paris, a data center is turning its hot air waste into water and piping into a local energy system. The mayor of the Paris suburb Seine-Saint-Denis claims that using the data center as an energy source will spare the region 1,800 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.
Sierra Club likened these efforts to greenwashing, a practice in which companies make deceptive claims to appear more environmentally friendly to consumers. Projects capturing and reusing heat for homes, offices or universities have sprung up across the region.
