Techprombusiness, owned by a large construction contractor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, has built a technopolis in Pushkino, Moscow Region. Some 50,000 square meters of the technological cluster’s facilities will be used for a mining rig. It is also expected that helicopters and hydrogen fuel production will be arranged at the technology park. Igor Selionov, business development director at Techprombusiness, detailed to Invest Foresight the cluster prospects.
Cryptomining and power supply
Of Pushkino Technopark’ 60K square meters of premises, some 50K will be used by a cryptomining rig which will be able to accommodate about 150K units of equipment for mining various cryptocurrencies. At the moment, some equipment operated by the cluster’s owners is going through a process of tests. The hi-tech park’s facilities may be also leased to a powerful data center necessary for storing Big Data as per the Russian antiterrorist legislation requirements.
Pushkino Technopark has some energy sources of its own and can supply energy for mining. The cluster operates power supply capacities, including two gas turbines, one steam turbine and a smart management system, with the aggregate output capacity of 10 MW. That should suffice for a medium-sized cryptomining rig; at AZLK site in Moscow, for instance, the mining rig which is owned by the internet ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev and businessman Sergei Bobylev, has the same capacity. Pushkino Technopark plans to obtain a 25 MW gas turbine to reduce cost price of the generated energy down to RUR 2 ($0.035) per kW. That is comparable to the consumer price of electricity for individuals in Irkutsk Region where electricity is the cheapest in Russia. Along with efforts to augment technopolis’ power output, Techprombusiness strives to launch additional heat and electricity generating capacities using renewable sources of energy.
Techprombusiness says its cluster is Russia’s first blockchain industrial park. It is expected that cryptomining equipment will be assembled there, possibly, of China’s Bitmain and/or US Bitfury components. Besides, teaching children of six or more years, and offering educational courses for cryptoinvestors, financiers, and blockchain enthusiasts are also envisaged.
It should be noted, Techprombusiness is a member to Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain (RACIB) and participates in discussing draft bills on digital economy.
FM’s contractor
Accoording to focus.kontur platform, (https://focus.kontur.ru), Techprombusiness is controlled by Nikolay Murashov and Konstantin Murashov (52% in total), as well as by Vladimir Merzlikin (26%), Alexander Milushkin and Mikhail Khmelnov (11% each). Nikolay Murashov is also the owner of MRSU-1 design and construction company founded in 1997, which has been employed to renovate and restore mansions owned by Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, as well as buildings of Russian embassies in seven European countries, Cuba, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
Pushkino Technopark does not want to depend on cryptocurrencies’ volatility. Its plans include launching other projects such as production of hydrogen fuel for various power generation systems and assembly of unmanned and piloted helicopters. The latter will be the responsibility of KBM Aero from the Czech Republic, which undertakes to sell Pushkino-made helicopters all over the world.
Further on, Pushkino Technopark will develop as a startups incubator, one of the very few science and technology clusters in Russia.
Fly-by-night business
In present-day Russia, no one is really willing to publicize one’s cryptomining business, therefore a launch of a technopolis, albeit a midsized one, tasked with mining, is quite some news. The remaining subsidiaries of Rosavtotrans joint stock company, a large motor carrier which last year initiated winding up procedures, offer the facilities they operate for rent by mining rigs.
“The company owns vast plots of lands and multiple truck terminals, and some are leased to mining rigs. One of such rigs operates 10,000 S9 cryptocurrency miners”, Natalia Ivanova, Chair of the Board at Rosavtotrans, told Invest Foresight.
She declined to disclose the names of the operators of such mining rigs, though, noting, such businesses tend to stay out of the spotlight.
“All critical infrastructure sites such as ports, airports, etc., with electricity generators of their own that are always on, they all produce cheap electricity and will eventually become cryptominers”, Rosavtotrans Chair predicts.
By Natalia Kuznetsova