A list of businesses and industries
moving to our area only grows by the day,
and we're now seeing dozens of
cryptocurrency mining companies setting
up shop here in Central Texas, and you
might not know, because those
companies aren't regulated by
any state or federal agency,
and some worry that those
companies will put a strain
on the state's power grid.
I dug into why so many cryptocurrency
related companies are flocking
to the Lone Star State.
Driving into one of the largest Bitcoin
mining facilities in North America,
I didn't know what to expect.
Where are we? What is all of this?
So we're inside riot big coin mining
facility here in Rockdale, TX,
an unusually large mining facility and
a small Texas town an hour from Austin.
This building is 1050 feet
long and 60 feet wide.
You don't see this in Bitcoin mining.
Chad Harris is the CEO
in all around us. Or thousands
of computers buzzing like worker
bees mining almost nonstop to
create a sweet profit. Bitcoin
let's back up. What is Bitcoin?
It's a form of cryptocurrency,
which is pretty much a form of digital money,
usually called a coin.
Bitcoin is the original
form of cryptocurrency,
and right now it's the most valuable.
In April of 2021,
one Bitcoin was worth more than $60,000,
but the price fluctuates.
Often in creating more coins or
mining them takes a lot of energy.
If I sent $20 in Bitcoin to you
requires approximately the amount of
electricity that American household
would use in an entire month.
William Magnuson is a
cryptocurrency legal expert.
The problem is that's
massively energy intensive.
He worries that the intense energy usage
will lead to more carbon emissions.
So why does crypto mining
requires so much power?
There's about 100,000 machines
here currently. Harris
says every machine or minor is
racing 24 hours a day to solve
a complicated math problem.
The computer that solves it first
produces the new unique Bitcoin.
So one single machine, after power cost
earns about 30 to $31 a day. Working
together, Harris says these machines
make about 63 bitcoins a day.
That translates to more than $3 million.
And to do that the facility
needs 300 megawatts of energy.
But after every coin is made,
it's harder to solve that
complicated math problem,
which leads to a demand for even more energy.
Which is why Riot went.
Stone is expanding.
Adding enough computers to
need another 400 megawatts.
That's enough to power a large city.
Texas has some of the lowest
cost energy in the world.
Those costs, along with business incentives
are why cryptocurrency miners and
related companies are flocking to Texas.
We think that the ethos of Bitcoin
and cryptocurrency and blockchain in general
fits very well with the state of Texas.
Lee Bratcher started the Texas Blockchain
Council in 2020 with the goal of making
Texas Bitcoin mining country and Austin,
the Bitcoin mining capital of the world.
We just about a month ago held
the Texas blockchain summit.
About 700 thought leaders and industry
professionals from all over the
country attended the event in Austin.
We had both the Texas Senators
Cruz and Cornyn and attendance
both senators and Governor
Greg Abbott said they support
Texas becoming a crypto leader.
Several of the largest Bitcoin
mining companies in the world are
headquartering themselves in Austin.
There's so much tech talent and Austin
blackcap mining moved his
headquarters from Las Vegas to Austin
in 2021 and there are more than
four dozen blockchain companies.
In Austin, blockchain systems
essentially serve as digital
ledgers most of the time.
They're used to track Bitcoin
activity and transactions,
and just less than a mile away from
Riot to Winstone is another leading
Bitcoin miner in the continent,
but the big concern can Texas
support the power demand,
and we know that the Texas electricity
grid is unstable. Meteorologist Erika
Lopez and Hunter Williams here, as well
as their tracking a major
winter storm tonight.
Austin Energy now saying about 35.
Percent of Austin residents Austin Energy
customers are without power tonight
and these storms have had
deadly consequences for Texans.
The freeze of February 2021
crippled the Texas Power grid,
leading to hundreds of deaths.
Cryptomining supporters argue
they bring balance to the grid in two ways,
one by using energy that otherwise
wouldn't be used if I wasn't using
the amount of power that I'm using,
you would be paying more for your power
and two by being able to power down
quickly when electricity demand is high,
Bitcoin miners can turn off within
5 seconds, so they actually
provide grid resiliency by.
Increasing baseload demand.
How do we know that all cryptocurrency
miners are acting responsibly?
Cryptocurrency mining isn't
regulated in Texas, so there's no
rule forcing minors to turn off,
but Harris says there's an incentive.
Their electricity costs are
lowered if they shut down during
peak demand in the summer.
Harris said they voluntarily powered
down about 72 times last year,
including during the winter storm,
but Harris admits not everyone
will live by the Honor Code.
And shut down when needed.
You're gonna have gold standard
and we believe we're at.
And then you're gonna have people
that might not behave the same way
since the winter storm state
leaders made it mandatory for
power plants to winterize.
But AUT, energy experts said
that's not enough. Half
the power plants in her cot
run on natural gas if we don't
fix the natural gas sector,
then it doesn't really help to have
power plants that can operate.
If you can't get fuel to them 'cause
they're not going to make electricity
because blockchain is unregulated.
It's unclear how many Bitcoin miners.
Are in Texas, which means it's hard to
know how much power they're actually using.
We need our government regulators
to step in and clarify the rules
that apply to crypto currencies.
We don't regulate any other load,
be that you know large petrochemical
refineries and and oil and gas
facilities on the on the Gulf Coast.
There are still a lot of unknowns,
but one thing's for sure.
The buzz surrounding Bitcoin is growing.
You can now use it to buy Dallas
Mavericks tickets or exchange
currency at your local H-E-B and
soon you'll start seeing QR codes
to use Bitcoin at restaurants.
That's exactly what it's designed
to do is to create a financial
opportunity freedom with no outside
governance to allow people to exchange
currency for goods and services.
And it's it's amazing
as miners swarmed to Texas.
Only time will tell if the buzzing machines
will pollinate our electricity grid.
Or give it a paralyzing sting
in Austin, I'm deraney, Sharon.
Guys look there is no sign
of this thing slowing down
here in Central Texas tomorrow
there will be a huge crypto mining
conference at the Kalahari Resorts,
so we'll see how this song goes as
they continue to flock to our area.
This is such a complicated issue and
so many different ideas and and things
that consider and you did a great
job just bundling it all together
and making it clear for someone
like myself who has no idea what
cryptocurrency was until watching that.
That great piece of work.
So good job there. Darn it.