Electric vehicle maker Tesla, payments company Block and blockchain app publisher Blockstream are partnering to build a solar-only Bitcoin (BTC) mining farm in Texas.
Green Bitcoin (BTC) mining in Texas
The information was validated by CNBC, on the sidelines of the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami. The American company Blockstream and Jack Dorsey’s company Block, formerly known as Square, announce a Bitcoin (BTC) mining farm project in Texas.
An important feature is that it will be powered solely by solar energy and batteries. Its installation will be handled by the American company Tesla, which is expected to provide 3.8 megawatts of photovoltaic panels and 12 megawatt-hour batteries.
Interviewed by CNBC at the event in Miami, Blockstream co-founder and CEO Adam Back, a renowned cryptographer and member of cypherpunk, gave more information about the project:
“People like to debate the different factors involved in bitcoin mining. We thought we should prove it. Let’s have an open dashboard for people to play the game, and maybe that will encourage other players to participate.”
All performance information from the mining facility will be publicly available in real time: energy production, total number of bitcoins mined and even solar and storage statistics. Adam Black also explained that this would be designed to be a proof of concept (PoC) for mining Bitcoin with 100% renewable energy:
“This is a step to prove our thesis that Bitcoin mining can fund zero-emission electricity infrastructure and build economic growth for the future.”
At this time, we do not yet know the size and energy performance of the facility, nor how much mining capacity it will have.