Iceland is vigorously developing cryptocurrency mining supporting industries

According to Bloomberg, Iceland is looking beyond cryptocurrencies to other projects that require the same infrastructure that Bitcoin miners rely on. These include deep learning applications for self-driving cars or automatic translation.

After gobbling up the energy for nearly every household in Iceland, bitcoin miners may be able to give something back to the communities that live there.

Bitcoin “may not be in the distant future,” said Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson, business development manager at Iceland’s HS Orka power plant, which provides electricity to data centers used by miners. But the centers themselves will become incubators for new technologies, “which is our bet,” he said.

Katrinarsson, chief commercial officer at Advania Data Centers, Iceland’s largest data center operator, said the company had “gained a great deal of understanding about the most efficient way to run and maintain blockchain systems” and was now using that knowledge and experience to “improve the quality of service for our customers.”

For Iceland, that means a clearer path to reaping the benefits of the digital age. Katrinarson says Advania is already working with Stanford University and Hewlett Packard Enterprise to simulate how a virtual heart responds to experimental drugs.

"The fourth revolution is starting," said Asgeir Margeirsson, CEO of the HS Orka power plant. "It would be terrible if we Icelanders didn't pay attention to this development. If we don't participate in the next development in the future, we will go backwards."

Kristinn R. Thorisson, director of Iceland’s Institute for Intelligent Machines, said the data centers currently used by bitcoin miners are “at the center of an industrial revolution that is still ongoing.” Today’s artificial intelligence still requires “more data and computing power.”