💡 Celebrating Gridless Compute as the African Bitcoin Miner of the Year, 2025!
We are thrilled to honor Gridless Compute as the African Bitcoin Miner of the Year. Led by co-founder and CEO Erik Hersman, Gridless is dismantling the myth that Bitcoin consumes energy; they are proving that Bitcoin is an engine for energy abundance and infrastructure development in Africa.
Gridless pioneers a symbiotic model where Bitcoin mining acts as the essential "Buyer of Last Resort" for renewable energy providers. This model provides guaranteed, predictable revenue, enabling new mini-grids to secure financing and infrastructure from day one. This directly subsidizes the cost of power, making electricity more affordable for local residents.
In 2025, their expansion demonstrated the power of this blueprint: they achieved significant Geographic Expansion, scaling operations beyond Kenya into Malawi and Zambia, thereby driving infrastructure development across new regions. This led to Direct Electrification, enabling hundreds of families and businesses to gain reliable electricity access for the first time, spurring small-scale economic activity. Furthermore, Gridless showed Technical Leadership by actively sharing their open-source blueprint and leading the Green Africa Mining Alliance (GAMA) to encourage replication of this model across the continent. Finally, they focused on Decentralized Innovation, developing ways for small-scale solar operators (like local farmers) to monetize their excess energy directly through Bitcoin mining.
Gridless proves that Bitcoin mining, when strategically deployed, is the most powerful tool for solving Africa’s fundamental challenge: reliable, affordable power. We salute your vision!
