Bitcoin Forum

https://decrypt.co/60598/argo-blockchain-buys-land-to-build-bitcoin-mining-facility-in-texas
https://decrypt.co/11741/another-major-bitcoin-mining-farm-set-to-open-texas
https://decrypt.co/20018/peter-thiel-backed-layer1-opens-up-bitcoin-mining-facility-in-texas

seems that Texas natural resources, natural gas and wind energy are drawing companies to invest in mining farms in Texas and Argo blockchain followed suit, with 320 acres of land acquisition

1. Bitmain launched mining facility in Rochdale, Texas, current capacity 50MW, with plans to expand to 300MW - edit: questionable status
https://i.imgur.com/nrOFayX.jpg

2. Northern Data AG has mining facility in Texas, that is currently upgraded to 1GW, and plans for 2023 upgrade to 3600MW, which is world largest mining facility
https://i.imgur.com/n1VQKhO.jpg

3. Layer1 mining facility with upper goal of 100MW
https://i.imgur.com/lilYbyt.jpg

4. Argo Blockchain acquired 320 acres of land to establish Bitcoin mining facility
https://i.imgur.com/uf87iGK.jpg

Are these mines close to the power source? Because that can be helpful for them to reduce their expenses in energy consumption. Tesla following this trend won't be possible as they are mainly a car company, maybe Elon might create another mining start up that are more focused on the bitcoin and other related stuff.

Or they could just buy some shares from these companies. No need to start from the beginning if you can get it at a lower cost. Not sure about the profit either, if they think staking/trading is better I guess we won't see any movement.

I could see Tesla buying a ton of PoS coin and run a node, something like ETH2 or BSC.

That could work but I don't think that they are going for a meager percentage, maybe they can buy the majority of the shares but who knows what they will do, I was just speculating on what is going to happen next.

Elon is open for possibilities of venturing on other investment option and might they will grab the option to open up a mining farm since its quite good option for them to open that. Remember they have capabilities since they have resources to make this project happen, but lets expect that they will use electric or other cheap methods so I believe they can lessen their operational cost if they can make their mining farm run by solar or other green energy source.

Would be great if Elon could made some green technology like his solar panel that could somehow helps these miners saving on electricity meanwhile switching over to green energy.
But honestly when it comes to mining like this I'd expect tesla to be the last company to invest into such thing, even when they bought btc back then many investors opposes so I doubt they gonna venture to mining like this.

Elon has a lot of things on his hands and I think that he will be having a hard time juggling all the work for his current companies. I don't know why would he will be choosing Texas though, I don't live in the USA but the only thing that I can think that is the advantage of living or setting up business in Texas is that it is a midway between East Coast and West Coast, the only problem with the current usage of renewable energy source is that they need a huge amount of land to cover to get an efficient harvest of power.

I thought texas was one of the biggest states and one of the cheapest states to buy a lot of land also?

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Bitdeer look to have been in texas a while before now also. I think vitamin are still busy trying to not be affiliated with the ccp or look controlled by them (as they've opened mining facilities in Europe and now the US).


It'd be much more valuable to snap up the means of production (the power stations).

I don't think Elon can do much more than throw money at projects and researchers and hope they work though...

Admittedly, I haven't read those articles, but are those the reasons why Texas seems to be a burgeoning hotbed for bitcoin mining?  I wouldn't think that natural gas or wind would be big factors unless some of these farms plan to be wind-powered (which would be pretty damn cool).  What Texas does have going for it is fairly cheap land and probably low electricity costs.

Anyway, I was surprised to see that many groups using Texas as their base of operations.  Last I heard, there was a big one that planned to start mining there but scuttled it for some reason (and I don't remember the details).  Go Texas!

That would be cool.  It'd be nice to see a huge mining farm that was solar powered, but I'm not sure how much sun the various parts of Texas get.  It's a huge state. 

yeah, Texas has natural resources, with plenty of natural gas and wind, and it is a big state and land is cheap there

with Tesla mentioning, I thought that Elon could broaden his Starbase City with a Bitcoin mining facility, he is actually building a city there, so why not?
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-starbase-city-spacex-texas-launch-site-2021-3


yeah, and that would also bring weight to USA mining and equalize global hash rate disposition, which is on China side at the moment, hoovering above 50%

The electricity supply system of Texas(I don't know how to call it) crashed a few weeks ago,due to the cold weather and snowing,which was something weird for a state like Texas.
AFAIK,Texas is a leader in the US,when it comes to renewable energy(solar and wind).
Unfortunately,solar and wind energy are still expensive for cryptocurrency mining.
Those Bitcoin miners better build their own power facilities and produce their own electricity.Their investment will pay off,after 25 years or sooner(if the Bitcoin price goes to 100K and above).

yeah, there was a crash, and reportedly, Bitcoin miners stopped mining and sold their electric power to the country, since that brought more profit than Bitcoin mining, economy at its finest
nevertheless, one/two days outage would not bring trend reversal, Texas could be new Bitcoin mining Eldorado

One correction:


This one was canceled a year ago
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/52163/bitmain-cancels-operation-partnership-for-its-texas-mining-farm

For the rest, only Whinstone US (the subsidiary of Northern Data AG )actually has the gear and orders to raise its capacity to those levels.
Ps, they have some at least interesting videos on their FB page (https://www.facebook.com/whinstoneus/posts/660859481134094) from the construction.


Good old dirty and cheap coal (and gas)to the rescue.  ;D


Unfortunately, solar panels only provide energy for a few hours during the day, it's one thing to store enough energy to run your tv or a washing machine during the night and a different thing to power up 10000 3KW miners for hours or in some cases even days. Without government subsidies, there is no way to run it and still make a profit, which wouldn't really be fair for others industries.

I am afraid that this is not going to work. Electricity is not that cheap in the United States. It is relatively cheap, but not as cheap as what they have in China and Russia. On top of that, with Joe Biden in power, we can expect closer scrutiny on electricity generation using coal or natural gas. And finally, the mining rigs needs to be imported from China. All these factors mean that Bitcoin mining in the United States can be profitable only if a high exchange rate is sustained on a continued basis.

actually, contract between Bitmain and DMG Blockchain for mining operation management is canceled, but facility is still working and construction works for the third line are under way
https://www.rockdalemdd.org/news/small-town-texas-turns-bitcoin-mining-survive

seems that Northern Data AG and Bitmain have their facilities in the same building, within Whinstone land in Rockdale industrial area
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Whinstone+US,+INC/@30.5737315,-97.0765217,939m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x8620bb6e60e32833:0x1b0aa9bc508390e0!8m2!3d30.5724811!4d-97.0775909

It seems lots of businesses are moving to Texas (https://www.investopedia.com/why-silicon-valley-companies-are-moving-to-texas-5092782), not only mining. That's the beauty of capitalism and the so-called capital flight. If the government creates stupid (not pro-business) policies, they will move.

And yes Tesla will follow:
Source. (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55246148)

Northern Data AG is Whinstone, they have already constructed their facility in Rockdale, you can see it in the video I linked in, Northern Data never partnered with Bitmain for the construction, they are only buying the miners from them, it was DMG who planned the other farm and that project is dead, Bitmain has already relocated most of the miners from that site to their other farm you can see that everybody stopped reporting since last year about it.
Probably adding to the confusion is that both were going to be constructed in the same town and less than one mile away from another and the fact that often partnership means only supplying the gear.

Oh my God, those are huge numbers you talking about. 50 MW to 300 MW, 1 GW that’s huge mining power from the current giants and they are always expanding. The Argo plant in 360 acre is huge thing man. That’s gonna be huge expansion of the mining operation. Moreover, if all of these three really starts over the time then it will have good impact on the transactions. Like lesser wait time for the transaction and lesser wait time may be?? I mean these things could happen right? Since we will have huge increase in mining power (?)

Even if they plan that all the mining gear comes online right after a difficult retarget for each of them the impact will be minimal, the power capacity is there but there are no sufficient miners to connect.
A 10% increase which would trigger faster blocks could be achieved right now with ~150 000 S19pro but Bitmain can't produce that many, for example, their contract with Marathon states 7000 miners in July and the rest till 70k spread till December, Riot has purchased 15 000 and they will be delivered from May till October. Looking at those numbers and even assuming multiple other partners it would look like even 50 000 asics a month is close to impossible, not even speaking of 75 000 a week.

We have seen an increase of barely 5% from January 11 till now, almost two months, 10% a week is in my opinion close to impossible with the current shortages, so no, there won't be any relief to the mempool coming from this side.

but this news is a very good one as it means maybe by next year, we will see the improvement of fees. and it won't be a surprise if TESLA will follow such move. now, we are not only seeing financial institutions coming into crypto, but even mining farms are being built. who knows, they will beat the mining farms in China? though it is a long shot, but last year's statistics (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1200477/bitcoin-mining-by-country/) says that about 65% are covered by China as compared to only 7.24% in the US.

Seems like these companies took some sweet, sweet deal from the power companies that are abundant in Texas, otherwise they wouldn't really be looking at the state to do their mining operations. The climate on the state for the most part of the year is not forgiving to what a mining facility wants, and so you will have issues about ventilation, temps, and would need even more people on maintenance just to ensure that the miners are running on optimal condition at all times. Whatever deal they got from power companies, it's enough for them to consider the state to put their facilities in despite other factors going against mining per se.

Well, the unique thing about Texas is it apparently has its own power grid that is entirely self reliant. But that should have no bearing on Bitcoin mining facilities because their only concern is energy costs.

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/most-expensive-and-cheapest-electricity-by-state-4177753

Texas doesn't even break in the top 10 for cheapest electricity. Could be because of the Texas economy which is booming due to Californians fleeing.

Considering that Elon is planning to build a city called Starbase in Texas, I think that there is a real possibility that they will follow this trend and he might become the biggest and most green bitcoin mining in the region. I think that Texas is a pretty good location because it is a big state and you can easily choose where you want to go whenever you want and the tax cuts there as I have heard is attractive for companies and rich people alike.

Yeah, maybe they got delusional and thought that it gets cold in Texas most of the time. Maybe what they are after is the land to put their operations because I believe that bitcoin mines take a lot of land if you want to build a profitable one. They could have saved if they were to put their mines on a place that is cold most of the time like that one place(I forgot the name) where Facebook has a data warehouse or @dothebeats might be right, the deal from power companies are so attractive that they are going to put up a mine there.

Tesla is not a company that mines, if they did they have solar city under their roof as well, well not technically tied to tesla I suppose but Elon owns that one as well, which means they could have handle energy as cheap as anyone in the world, all solar power, can be built anywhere that gets a lot of sun, like texas or like arizona or any other place that gets sun most of the year, and they could build miners as well because they have smartest minds in the world, if someone can hire people who sends rockets to mars, they can certainly hire people who can build miners as well.

So, basically if they wanted to get into this business, they would have been able to do this much better than anyone in the world, but they are not interested in that, they are doing much more work and a lot more profit with cars and rockets right now and that is why they do not care.

this is actually as far from true, as a statement can be
rockets certainly do not see profits at the moment, and no one is expecting profit from that in near future, since that is development phase for the project, and Elon is investing in rocket business, which is not under TSLA as well, it is a separate company

TSLA earned more from buying BTC than selling cars in ten years, and they actually aren't profitable at all in selling cars, what makes TSLA profit is selling green-energy credits for other manufacturers that do not produce electric cars, and produce classic cars with combustible engine

Let’s see what’s going to happen in the years coming, if they are going to start mining bitcoin or not. But it’s not really necessary, we already have a lot of bitcoin mining companies. Though if they decide to go for it and become and Bitcoin mining company that wouldn’t be bad, I know very well that they are going to be among the companies that will be the biggest in the industry, because they already have lots of money to invest and build it to the level they would want.

Wow, this is the first time that I’m getting to know about this Starbase you’re talking about. What’s it all about? I don’t live in the US and I don’t really follow him on any social media platform, so I am not able to catch up with any of the news that has to do with him.

SpaceX spaceport is based in Texas that is the main reason why Elon Musk wants to build his Spacebase town there. However I won’t wonder if he would put their a lot of windmills to have cheap electricity and also make there a small (on several thousands of asics) BTC (and Dogecoin as well) mining farm like that did those companies. Texas has all facilities for this.

Sound a little bit radical but all I see is environmental pollution. Bitcoin mining is profitable and we need a farm so as to confirm transactions and my new block. But with this accelerate, soon, our world will become a big hot ball with electrical farms. Personally, POW is kinda outdated, and new alteration is needed to exterminate. Goss, people only care about money and profit. How will you use your money if one day our earth dies?

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Tesla will definitely not join this farming race. He already had his electric car company and his space adventure career - SpaceX . And I believe space adventure will be the next innovation of humankind because there are immense resources in the big black blank space. An asteroid can provide enough power, mineral material for a whole country

There is possibility that he is already thinking about this kind of venture. But of course, I believe, he will use a renewable energy source unlike other mining facilities. As Musk has investments in btc and doge, more than likely, putting up his own mining facility has passed in his mind. Let us see in the coming months or years, if he will announce putting up some of his investments in crypto mining. Elon wants clean power, and right now, bitcoin mining is giving off million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. So it is an irony of what he is preaching for.

I very much doubt that Tesla will start mining in the near future and here's why. Undoubtedly, Elon Musk, with his recent statements and responses, shows sympathy for the cryptocurrency, especially for bitcoin and dogcoin. But it is one thing to buy a certain amount of bitcoins and organize the sale of electric cars for this cryptocurrency, because these are quite interconnected things, and it is completely different to engage in mining. Still, I think that batteries and cars will remain the main business of the company in the near future and the company is unlikely to be sprayed on mining, because this is very far from their main profile of activity, I would rather believe in the new initiatives of the company about energy.

This is very interesting information, I would never think that it would be feasable to main BTC in Texas or i nUS in general . I tought that the electricity costs are way higher than in other places like Russia, India, China...

Regarding Tesla, no way, it is not their bussines , they have too much on their plate. The best case scenario could be that they would do something with tesla roof + btc as a marketing trick . otherwise, no way.

Texas uses self-sufficient energy and that is risky. Or look back at how the blizzard in February exhausted the state. I am not in favor of bitcoin mining in Texas as it could cause a severe energy shortage in the state.
Bitcoin mining should be located in areas close to hydroelectricity or nuclear power facilities because these places have a large capacity and are more stable than other forms of energy.

Texas is one of the most oil rich places in the world and that is why electricity is cheaper there. There is also a lot of winds and a lot of sun there as well so you can always get your own energy source without needing anything, when you have those type of personal energy production, you do not really care where you are because you are doing it yourself, of course it matters because you do not do solar panels on Iceland to get a lot of sun, you do it on Texas, but that is about it because if you can do it you can do it on Africa or Texas and it is the same since all you need is sun.

Texas has all kinds, gas, oil, sun, winds and that is why it is a great place to start. I believe with these type of works, we are going to see a lot more places starting to manufacture new mining equipment as well, we will see a Texas based company trying to make something that is faster and have higher hash rate.

No one bothers to attend to the construction of their own wind or solar power plants for mining tasks, given some of Tesla's environmental preferences, as well as participation in the production of solar panels and accumulators. Although I have great doubts that mining is among the priorities of Elon Musk due to its relatively low marginality and the claims of environmentalists to mining due to the large consumption of electricity.

Why should we think that Tesla would jump into a space where they are not interested, they invested heavily in bitcoin but that does not mean that they are willing to invest billion to set up a mining farm. The big mining farms that are active now might migrate to Texas and continue their mining process and we might see other miners showing interest as well.

Tesla appears to be constructing a 100+ megawatt battery for the powergrid in texas.


They previously built a 129 megawatt battery in south australia which saved $116 million in power costs over two years.


Its been said that the boom in texas crypto mining is fueled by a surge in wind farms being constructed there.

If crypto miners in texas can contract tesla to build more megawatt batteries for the grid, it could give them a greater advantage in reducing electrical costs.

good point, electrical power from wind is not cheap, but Texas has natural resources to have it as cheap as possible, and that could be accumulated in mega batteries, to be used as renewable source for mining

there is an initiative to use renewable energy for BTC mining, and some investors are claiming that would not buy BTC mined in China, without renewable energy

Because texas provides inexpensive electricity costs that no other place can provide, it was such an opportune moment for bitcoin miners to use this as a place to conduct operations. Bitcoin miners will definitelt benefit from the renewable energy, such as solar panels or windmills, that could further cut costs. Tesla on the other hand, is working on a new project in texas, not bitcoin related but it has something to do with lithium hydroxide. I dont know if Tesla would follow in bitcoin mining, but knowing Elon Musk, it is possible.

Renewable energy such as wind or solar power cannot create stable reserves. Mining t in Texas is risky because it could be shut down.
The problem of Tesla mining Bitcoin is unlikely because Tesla has a mission to protect the environment.

I don't think that Tesla will try their hand with cryptocurrency mining. They don't want to deviate from their core domain (i.e the EV sector), and even when a part of the reserve funds were converted to Bitcoin, there was a lot of protests from some of the investors. Fortunately for the management, the Bitcoin investment returned profit for them. If it was the other way around, then they could have been in big trouble. The anti-Bitcoin investors were even planning to file lawsuits against the move, but the rally in BTC exchange rates discouraged them.

There is actually evidence out there that 80% of all Bitcoin mining activity is performed by Chinese companies. I saw an article today that stated between 40-60% of the power needed for this purpose in China is using dirty coal energy - that is a very bad thing for the environment and feels extremely wasteful, even if a large chunk is also coming from cleaner forms. It is highly unlikely that companies based in a country like the US will be able to mine Bitcoin at a competitive rate compared to the cost of electricity. Even while keeping at the cutting edge of technology and using renewable energy sources like solar/wind power I am not sure if companies would be able to operate at similar margins with the extra costs like property and staffing.

Texas companies should pioneer the use of green energy in mining bitcoins. Most of the bitcoins mined nowadays come from nonrenewable resources that further deteriorate the integrity of our environment. This act could spearhead the use of renewable sources in the future not only for mining bitcoin but for everything else that runs on electricity. Since the US holds a certain power over the planet, it's undoubtedly s move that coulf inspire other countries to join in.

need we forget texas's power cuts not so long ago

texas needs a hell of alot of investment to upgrade its current electrical infrastructure
im guessing they done alot of good deals to offer cheap electric contracts to big miners to get some big money flowing into the electrical companies

In general, it is ungrateful to talk about profitability in bitcoin mining, given the huge volatility of bitcoin ;) The Chinese energy industry has historically used more coal for its activities, but in recent years, the share of thermal power plants has been falling, and the share of wind and solar plants is growing rapidly, so there are also environmental-friendly changes. Here much depends on the position of the regional authorities, because there was information that not all the authorities of the Chinese regions are happy with the presence of mining capacity and would like to use electricity for other purposes, so the current share of Chinese miners may become less in the future, although of course now Chinese miners are ready for lower profitability than, for example, American miners.