CleanSpark Announces Two New Acquisitions + More Crypto News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of blockchain and crypto news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s news.

In today’s edition:

• CleanSpark Announces Two New Acquisitions
• Neo Develops Bespoke Consortium Ethereum-compatible Chain for Chinese Enterprise Market
• XRPL Commons Partners with UNESCO’s Chair of Innovation, Transmission, and Digital Publishing

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CleanSpark Announces Two New Acquisitions

Bitcoin miner CleanSpark has entered into definitive agreements to acquire four mining facilities in the USA. It will pay for them with cash on hand, said the press release

First, it signed a deal to acquire three turnkey bitcoin mining facilities in Mississippi, for $19.8 million. The purchase will close within 21 days.

The company expects the operating hashrate at the combined facilities to reach 2.4 EH/s (exahashes per second) shortly after closing.

Secondly, CleanSpark will purchase a third mining facility, which is under construction in Dalton, Georgia, for an initial cash payment of $3.4 million. It will invest another $3.5 million to complete the project, with a target operational date of April 2024.

The mining company already operates some 0.8 EH/s of machines at its current Dalton campus, comprised of two facilities. It is now expanding the campus with an extra 0.8 EH/s, for a total operating hashrate of 2.4 EH/s.

The announcement said that,

“The two announced deals, combined with the imminent energization of the Sandersville expansion, provide CleanSpark the additional power it needs to exceed 20 EH/s during the first half of 2024, which is double the Company’s current operational hashrate of 10 EH/s.”

CEO Zach Bradford commented that, “with the addition of Mississippi to our portfolio, we are gradually increasing our geographic diversity.”

Neo Develops Bespoke Consortium Ethereum-compatible Chain for Chinese Enterprise Market

Open-source, community-driven blockchain Neo announced that it has launched a bespoke Ethereum-compatible consortium chain for the China-based BSN-DCC Network.

An-shun Chain is now live following significant testing and innovation from the Neo team, said the press release.

The team developed the chain to meet domestic application needs. It builds on the momentum of Neo’s recently launched permissionless EVM-compatible Neo X sidechain

Moreover, the announcement added that,

“Based on the Ethereum protocol, Neo developed An-shun Chain as a high-performance and cost-effective decentralized blockchain infrastructure to be used across specific industry sectors including supply chain, traceability, and NFTs, and to address pain points in businesses with complex data integration.”

BSN-DDC Network is a distributed cloud service network managed by the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) China. BSN is a blockchain infrastructure network constructed by a group of key organizations and companies, with Neo as one of its earliest members.

XRPL Commons Partners with UNESCO’s Chair of Innovation, Transmission, and Digital Publishing

Paris-based nonprofit XRPL Commons announced a new partnership with UNESCO’s Chair of Innovation, Transmission and Digital Publishing (ITEN), a digital technology and media-focused program for advancing research, building university networks, and assisting with program development in higher education.

Therefore, the partnership aims to advance blockchain’s positive global impact through joint research initiatives and educational events.

Planned activities include working with PhD students interested in studying blockchain technology, co-creating learning materials, and facilitating the organization of events that enhance learning experiences and foster inclusivity across the blockchain space.

Also, the first event will be a Hackathon held in Paris to explore the potential of Layer 1 blockchain XRP Ledger to enable different use cases across the education, sciences, and culture sectors.

Per the announcement,

“Both organizations are deeply entrenched in the French education landscape, making this partnership particularly beneficial for exchanging resources and contacts.”

Meanwhile, over the past year, XRPL Commons has partnered with the Sorbonne University, EPITA School of Engineering and Computer Science, and Epitech (the Paris Graduate School of Digital Innovation). Similarly, the UNESCO Chair ITEN is connected to the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme and the University of Paris 8.

David Bchiri, President of XRPL Commons, said that the partnership “reflects a forward-looking approach to education, acknowledging the dynamic interplay between technological advancements and societal needs.”

Matthieu Quiniou, Co-director of UNESCO’s Chair ITEN, commented that the partnership “will enable the creation of better conditions for the cross-development of scientific research with the practices of professionals and creators in the blockchain sector.”