New Delhi: The Bhutan Himalayan Nation explores the means to exploit and take advantage of green cryptocurrencies using hydroelectricity to stimulate its economy and create jobs to reduce brain leak, said the director general of his sovereign fund.
Green cryptocurrencies are digital currencies extracted using clean energy resources such as wind, hydroelectric or solar energy instead of fossil fuels.
Sandwich between the Asian giants of India and China, Bhutan has won millions of dollars in recent years by investing in some of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world and has used part of its profits to pay the wages of the government for two years, two senior officials in Thimpu, the capital said.
“We are a nation that manages 100% on hydroelectricity, and each digital part that we exploit in Bhutan using hydroelectric compensation which explodes with the help of fossil combustibles,” said Ujjwal Deep Dahal, CEO of the Fund, Druk Holding and Investments Ltd.
“Thus, a piece undermined in Bhutan will contribute to the green economy,” he told Reuters on Tuesday, April 15.
Dahal said that the fund, which controls the only Bhutan electricity production of electricity production, began to add cryptocurrencies to its portfolio in 2019, considering virtual currencies as a tactical investment and a game of gams for the country.
Bhutan is famous for its gross index of national happiness (GNH), an economic gauge which incorporates factors ignored by the usual measures of the gross domestic product, such as leisure, emotional well-being and sustainability.
It uses hydroelectricity to use energy supercomputers to create digital assets that can be added to the blockchain.
Officials explore whether large conglomerates could buy “green” pieces from Bhutan to achieve their objectives on environmental, social and governance standards (ESG).
“Bitcoin has not only given more value to hydroelectric energy, it has also increased access to liquidity in foreign currencies,” said Dahal, who added that the training of young people in Bhoutan in the blockchain and IA techniques would feed jobs.
The nation of around 800,000 is fighting against an exodus of young people and educated people. The government believes that more than a tenth of its young people have sought greener pastures between 2022 and 2023, passing unemployment in this age group at 16.5% in 2024.
Analysts said that the ambitious Bhutan plan to become the capital of green digital currency depends on the widening of its hydroelectric production to a potential of 33 gigawatts against an existing capacity of around 3.5 gigawatts.
“We plan to generate 15 gigawatts in the next 10 to 15 years,” added Dahal.
