Thousands of pounds of bitcoin mining equipment are still on their way from China to Texas as part of a multi-month caravan, as Texas Governor Greg Abbott makes courting the bitcoin industry a centerpiece of his re-election campaign in 2022. As the Chinese government drives bitcoin mining operations to relocate or go underground, Texans are hoping to capitalize on China’s missed chance, assuring that Texas will play a significant part in the cryptocurrency industry.
Geosyn Mining co-founder Caleb Ward described a new Texas facility that debuted in January 2022 as “we have inaugurated our first bitcoin mine in downtown Fort Worth, which will be a showpiece for our larger mine located immediately outside the city.” “We’re bootstrapping a big solar power project with income from this 20,000-square-foot facility west of Fort Worth.” Ward intends to have around 530 bitcoin mining machines running in his facility by the end of March. And he isn’t the only bitcoin miner with his sights set on Texas. According to the Texas Blockchain Council, there are 27 local bitcoin mining companies.
Don Huffines, a Republican real estate entrepreneur and candidate for Texas governor, Abbott’s opponent in the 2017 election, recently stated that he would look beyond the mining business for prospects and would be even more pro-bitcoin than Abbott. If elected, Huffines stated he would make bitcoin legal tender. Texas lawmakers appear to be pro-bitcoin across the board. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican, stated in October 2021 that bitcoin mining may “strengthen our energy infrastructure.” However, some members of Congress are skeptical that bitcoin mining will assist the electricity system. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, pointed out in January that bitcoin’s proof-of-work mining mechanism demands vast quantities of computing power.
“This network processed hundreds of thousands of transactions last year.” Imagine the consequences for the environment,” Pallone added. The large relocation of bitcoin mining operations to Texas, which is now ongoing, could serve as a test bed for whether the mining business is beneficial or harmful to the electricity system. Bitcoin mining, according to proponents, will help regulate energy consumption across the grid. According to critics, it will consume more energy than it produces and regulates.
There has never been a time when the stakes have been higher. The Texas electricity infrastructure has seen many outages in the last year, all of which have resulted in fatalities. Some commentators attribute the status of the energy infrastructure to privatization. Sending energy from producing sites to consumers is still unreasonably expensive and complicated. The grid is crippled as electricity is lost in translation.
Meanwhile, businessmen and equipment continue to march. Poolin CEO Kevin Pan told TechCrunch that his company’s goal is to expand their new two-gigawatt mining facility in Texas, more than quadrupling their operations in Texas over time. Poolin is one of the top bitcoin mining companies in the world, accounting for roughly 13% of the global network hashrate. “In the next two years, Texas will be the world’s bitcoin capital,” Pan said. The easiest method to realize Cruz’s vision of using bitcoin mining to build Texas’ energy infrastructure, according to Pan and Ward, is to power bitcoin mining facilities with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.
“We’re putting solar panels around our Texas property,” Pan explained. “There are also a lot of wind turbines along the coast.” Wind power is typically seasonal in Texas, accounting for 7-20% of total energy generation depending on the month. These bitcoin miners will employ a combination of energy sources throughout the year because solar power has the same temporal restrictions.
That’s why Texas lawmakers are meeting with bitcoin mining executives from all over the world, according to mining consultant Alejandro de la Torre, founder of ProofofWork.Energy. They’re aiming to dispel the myth that the power usage of the local bitcoin mining sector is harmful to the environment. If corporations design from the beginning to maximize local renewable energy sources, the industry might grow and generate attractive taxes as reliance on the oil and gas industry declines.
