Meet the world's most powerful bitcoin backers

In North America, billionaire backing is going into HIVE (TSVX:HIVE.V), via Lionsgate Entertainment and Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) superstar Frank Giustra, a legendary mining figure known for being in the right place at the right time-and always in front of a trend.

The new Great Game is virtual reality, and while governments are busy trying to figure out how they can control it, investors are busy sinking billions into what is fast becoming a story of industrial-scale cryptocurrency mining.

Now that everyone's seen how resilient Bitcoin is, not only are things moving to the industrial phase, but everyone's weighing the best venues for mining. Because even though this is virtual reality, location still matters.

That's why HIVE has set up in Iceland, where Mother Nature's natural cooling is friendly to these massive computing facilities, and where the massive energy required to mine cryptocurrency-in this case Ether - on an industrial scale is cheaper thanks to plentiful hydroelectric and geothermal sources. First, HIVE put $9 million into Hong Kong-based Genesis Mining Ltd., which just built the biggest ether-mining facility in the world-Enigma. Genesis acquired 30% of HIVE in the deal. A second deal in mid-October saw HIVE close a $30-million bought deal financing, completing a $7 million investment by Genesis Mining, acquiring a second data center in Iceland.

And now HIVE is setting up in another 'cold country' - Sweden - with Genesis.

From China and Russia to North America, virtual is the reality. It's no longer a question of whether cryptocurrency will survive. It's a question of what it will disrupt on its way to the top of the global finance chain.

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