Why Bitmain Is Building the World's Largest Bitcoin Mine in Rural Texas

Bitmain, the world's largest maker of bitcoin-mining computers, chose an old Alcoa aluminum-smelting plant in Rockdale, Texas, for a new bitcoin mine.

They assembled, just outside the town of Rockdale, in the central-Texas countryside, to celebrate the opening of a new bitcoin-mining plant constructed by Beijing-based Bitmain, the world's largest manufacturer of computers designed to mine cryptocurrency.

Many of the locals on the tour had little if any idea how bitcoin mining worked, or even what bitcoin was.

In 2018, the company inked a deal with local officials to set up a bank of computers inside the Alcoa plant to mine bitcoin.

Thousands of processing units run 24 hours a day, sending trillions of numbers per second via the Internet to mine bitcoin.

Bitmain declined to disclose the cost to build its new facility or the total bitcoin that it will produce.

The company says it plans to build out the plant to use 50 megawatts, and that eventually capacity could reach 300 megawatts, making it the world's largest bitcoin mine.

Cryptocurrency-industry officials familiar with the technology say a 50-megawatt bitcoin mine would cost about $80 million to $100 million to build.

The reality is that bitcoin mines represent a new type of industrial facility, with a glaring absence of heavy machinery and spewing little to no pollution, aside from the sizable emissions from the associated power generation.

Bitmain currently operates the Rockdale mine with a staff of fewer than 50 people.