Two Bitcoin mining giants are vying for reasonable electric power in the small Texas town.
Bitdeer, a mining company of Chinese giant Bitmain, and Riot Blockchain, one of the leading publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies in the United States, function as knowledge centers housed in a former aluminum smelter in the city of Rockdale in Texas.
The city’s aluminum smelting plant was in the past the largest in the world, until the company that ran it, Alcoa, began operations in 2008. According to Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, the facility’s energy capacity has been wasted from Alcoa. on the left until the miners move.
Although Rockdale includes a small rural town of just 5,600 people, it has all the benefits sought through commercial-scale miners: cryptocurrency-friendly politicians, giant parcels of land housing deserted commercial infrastructure for reuse, and reasonable electric power costs, thanks to Texas’ deregulated marketplace.
Rockdale Mayor John King describes the relationship between the local grid operator, the Texas Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT) and miners as mutually beneficial and noted that miners consume electrical power that would otherwise be wasted and that they can also avoid their operations immediately if electric power is needed elsewhere.
As Cointelegraph reported on October 7, Riot has more than tripled its Bitcoin this year.
The company now estimates that the facility produces more than 500 BTC according to the month since its Rockdale facility. At existing prices, the mined coins equate to $30 million according to the month. Riot says it hosts 100,000 mining rigs.
Related: Crypto Cowboys: Texas Counties Welcome Bitcoin Miners with Open Arms
Texas lawmakers are pushing for a further expansion of the state’s Bitcoin mining embrace, with Sen. Ted Cruz describing mining as a way to capture the herbal fuel the state is burning lately.
Speaking at the Texas Blockchain summit on Oct. 10, Cruz argued that herbal fuel is being burned lately in West Texas because “there is no transmission apparatus to carry this herbal fuel where it can only be used as herbal fuel. “
Part of the clever appearance of this is that the moment you do it, you’re helping the surroundings tremendously, because more than burning herbal gas, you’re putting it to smart use,” he added.