Japan’s DMM.com set to launch virtual currency mining business
DMM.com aims to turn the “DMM Mining Farm” into one of the 10 largest mining farms in the world in 2018.
Virtual currency operations continue to lure more Japanese companies, with DMM.com Inc – an online services provider and owner of retail Forex broker DMM FX, being the latest to join this accelerating trend.
On Friday, DMM.com announced the establishment of its own Virtual Currency Division which is set to commence operating a virtual currency mining business called “DMM Mining Farm” in October.
The company pledges that “DMM Mining Farm” will deliver made-in-Japan quality. It will operate a mass-scale mining farm. After completion of successful trials, “DMM POOL” will be released for global use within this. DMM.com aims to turn the “DMM Mining Farm” into one of the 10 largest mining farms in the world in 2018.
One of the projects DMM is currently working on is “DMM Cloud Mining” which will seek to offer the public to easily join the “DMM Mining Farm” at any time. As one of its advantages over other existing cloud mining services, which are often created overseas, “DMM Cloud Mining” will be operated by DMM.
The announcement by DMM.com was made one day after another Japanese Internet giant – GMO Internet Inc. (TYO:9449) unveiled its plans to launch a Bitcoin mining business. In its announcement, GMO said it will operate a next-generation mining center utilizing renewable energy and semiconductor chips in Northern Europe. It will use cutting-edge 7 nm process technology for chips to be used in the mining process, and will collaborate on its research and development and manufacturing with an alliance partner having the necessary semiconductor design technology.
GMO Internet has confirmed that the launch, scheduled for the first half of 2018, and the development of the necessary technology, will trigger certain expenditure. The company said the expenditure will be more than 10% of the consolidated non-current assets as of December 31, 2016 (¥3,489 million).
Whereas DMM did not elaborate much on the rationale for the new business launch, apart from mentioning the growth of the virtual currency market, GMO was more detailed in its announcement, saying that it believes that crypto currencies will develop into “new universal currencies” available for use by anyone from any country or region to freely exchange “value,” creating a “new borderless economic zone.”
