DICKENS COUNTY — Nestled just a few miles north of the city of Dickens down a gravel county highway is a 125,000 square-foot warehouse stuffed with high-tech supercomputing tools that appeared to pop up almost overnight.
In 2019, Dickens County Decide Kevin Brendle obtained a random e mail that finally led to this new datacenter breaking floor about eight months in the past. Now, the power is churning out Bitcoin within the Gateway to the Rolling Plains.
The ability is Argo Blockchain’s new flagship cryptocurrency mining heart, dubbed “Helios,” which opened to a lot fanfare Thursday morning on the website between Afton and McAdoo.
Take a tour of the brand new heart:A look at Dickens County’s new crypto mining center
The festivities at Thursday’s grand opening included remarks from elected officers and firm executives, guided excursions, a catered meal and dwell music. U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo, and Lubbock Republicans state Rep. Dustin Burrows and state Sen. Charles Perry have been all readily available to congratulate the corporate and group on the achievement.
Argo relies in the UK and maintains workplaces in Quebec, Canada and Houston, however CEO Peter Wall says “It’s form of primarily based right here now. Now we have extra folks employed in Dickens County than every other place. That is our flagship mining facility. It is a large, large place for us.”
Wall says the datacenter shall be able to mining round 25 Bitcoin per day, or about 5 instances the corporate’s present output. Primarily based on Saturday’s Bitcoin worth, that will imply the Dickens facility might generate about $900,000 in income per day for Argo, although Bitcoin values fluctuate wildly.
Pictures:Argo Blockchain cryptocurrency opens flagship in Dickens County
Mining, Wall says, is principally the method of receiving new Bitcoin in as a reward for verifying different Bitcoin transactions by means of complicated mathematical computations on a pc community.
“In our present monetary system, if I’m going to ship you some cash from one place to a different, you utilize a financial institution, and the financial institution is the trusted third occasion,” Wall stated. “Within the Bitcoin community, you utilize a community of decentralized computer systems which can be unfold out around the globe. We’re a part of that community.”
Why West Texas?
Argo selected Dickens County to construct its 200-megawatt facility due to the plentiful provide of low-cost wind power, Wall stated, which is vital due to the corporate’s give attention to sustainability as they plan to quadruple the output of the Dickens facility within the close to future.
“The principle factor that that you must be a Bitcoin miner is energy, and what there’s a lot of in West Texas is energy, notably wind energy,” Wall stated, noting that energy in Dickens County prices lower than half of what it does on the firm’s facility in Quebec.
The county’s folks additionally drew them in.
“Individuals in Dickens County are actually gifted and hard-working,” Wall stated. “We’ve obtained 26 folks employed now in Dickens County and 45 within the area. We’re now the biggest employer within the county, aside from the varsity techniques.”
County Decide Kevin Brendle — who jokingly referred to himself as “Bitcoin Brendle” — stated that Argo’s use of energy and other people is helpful not simply to the county, however to the group as effectively.
“What Argo brings to Dickens County is tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} in infrastructure, which is able to equate to tens of millions of {dollars} of tax income over the subsequent 5 years that may go into our college techniques and our county budgets,” Brendle stated. “It is going to convey folks in to work who will spend their cash right here, and sooner or later in time, we hope to broaden our housing so we will convey extra folks right here, as a result of what they’re doing right here, this facility, is simply step one.”
“The influence to our group is best jobs with advantages, insurance coverage, retirement, trip. Will probably be a tax boon for our college districts and the county,” he added.
As well as, Brendle says that computing amenities like Argo’s might assist to stabilize the ERCOT grid through the use of up present extra energy and shutting down when requested by the grid operator.
“The power they’re pulling known as ‘extra power’. They’re not drawing on power that every other companies or houses are using. The substation has a congestion of power. There’s extra coming in than there’s an offload, so the corporate is ready to promote that extra power actually low-cost to corporations like Argo,” Brendle stated. “However, when the time comes that the ERCOT system wants it, they’ll ship it again onto the grid.”
A number of of the elected officers who spoke throughout Thursday’s ceremonies referred to the Argo Helios facility as “the tip of the iceberg,” and Brendle concurs with that evaluation.
“I get calls from Bitcoin miners each week that wish to transfer in right here,” Brendle stated. “We’re not recruiting them. The recruitment was achieved when the renewable power got here. They’re coming. They’re coming.”