1 yr Delta
Thinking that's not the only BOOM for today…
Bitmain, the world’s largest maker of bitcoin-mining computers, chose an old Alcoa aluminum-smelting plant in Rockdale, Texas, for a new bitcoin mine.
The Beijing company says the plant has an initial power size of 25 megawatts but will be expanded to 50 megawatts and potentially 300 megawatts.
Texas has an abundance of power resources, so the new plant is unlikely to affect local electricity prices, say officials.
ROCKDALE, TEXAS – In the concrete-and-iron shell of a mostly-abandoned Alcoa aluminum smelter, Chinese and Canadian executives in business suits mingled with local residents in cowboy hats and baseball caps.
They assembled, just outside the town of Rockdale, in the central-Texas countryside, to celebrate the opening of a new bitcoin-mining plant constructed by Beijing-based Bitmain, the world’s largest manufacturer of computers designed to mine cryptocurrency.
County Judge Steve Young, the top elected official in rural Milam County, kneeled to snap photos. Tao Wu, an Arizona-based Bitmain executive sporting a thin bolo tie, gave a tour to curious local residents and journalists, shouting over the whirring of thousands of cooling fans.
“There’s going to be jobs, there’s going to be revenue,” Rockdale Mayor John King told the entourage during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. “We’re going to see great things coming in the future.”
Many of the locals on the tour had little if any idea how bitcoin mining worked, or even what bitcoin was.
“How do I monetize that?” said one person on the tour. “It’s not tangible.”
Texas, long known for its bountiful commodities, from cotton to crude oil, is now drawing a new breed of speculators in search of bitcoin, invented just a decade ago.
Tao Wu, director of integrated solutions for Bitmain, shows off a bank of bitcoin-mining computers, the length of three football fields.
Bitmain says its operation in the state, which is flush with cheap electricity and plenty of space, represents an alluring opportunity – especially after prices for the cryptocurrency more than doubled this year to about $8,200.
In 2018, the company inked a deal with local officials to set up a bank of computers inside the Alcoa plant to mine bitcoin. Thousands of processing units run 24 hours a day, sending trillions of numbers per second via the Internet to mine bitcoin. The configuration has roughly the height and width of a railroad boxcar but extends in length for three football fields.
Bitmain declined to disclose the cost to build its new facility or the total bitcoin that it will produce. It did reveal that the plant during its initial phase will use 25 megawatts of electricity, the same amount as about 20,000 average U.S. households. The company says it plans to build out the plant to use 50 megawatts, and that eventually capacity could reach 300 megawatts, making it the world’s largest bitcoin mine.
Cryptocurrency-industry officials familiar with the technology say a 50-megawatt bitcoin mine would cost about $80 million to $100 million to build. Using the rated specifications on Bitmain’s Antminer S17 Pro mining computers, along with the website CryptoCompare’s mining profitability calculator, the Rockdale facility could generate an estimated $73 million of revenue per year, based on current prices. The only main input for these mines is electricity, and among U.S. states, Texas has the fourth-lowest power costs for industrial customers, according to government data.
The project was initiated last year, then shelved in early-2019 after bitcoin prices tumbled roughly 75 percent from their 2018 highs. As prices rebounded this year, Bitmain rushed to start up production.
“Once the price turned around, we ramped up,” says Clint Brown, 54, a former construction contractor, who now serves as a Bitmain project manager. “And it was like, ‘hurry up, we need to get this done.’”
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https://www.coindesk.com/why-bitmain-is-building-the-worlds-largest-bitcoin-mine-in-rural-texas