Hive Blockchain Technologies, a crypto mining company, sold its Norwegian subsidiary, Kolos Norway AS, to the local municipality of Narvik. In December 2018, the Norwegian Parliament approved a legislative bill that cryptocurrency miners were no longer subject to the relief on power consumption at the same rate as other power-intensive industries. The company declared that this law was the main reason for the sale.
Kolos was announced in 2017 with the promise of building 'the biggest data center in the word", but the plans never really materialized and in 2018 the campus was sold to Hive Blockchain Technologies for NOK 80.00000. The site was suposed to be repurposed for cryptocurrency mining, with Hive promising to develop a 30MW data center, growing to 120MW in a year. Then CEO & Hive director Harry Pokrandt stated at the time: "Kolos will be a flagship data centre project for HIVE for years to come and has the potential to expand to more than 1.0 GW, or 1,000 MW, of green hydroelectricity consumption dedicated to blockchain infrastructure". Months later the Norwegian government approved a law blocking crypto miners to receive tax cut for power use.
In a reaction to the sale executive chairman Frank Holmes stated: "We are unfortunate that it has come to this, but glad that the property has been retained by the local community so that the community can focus on developing this greenfield property for many uses. This deal was made before myself or our CFO had assumed executive duties. We are pleased that our management team can now continue to focus on more immediate needs like upgrading our current facilities while expanding existing operations in Sweden, Iceland, and Canada."
