In the first American city to do so, Fort Worth will now start mining bitcoin. The city is located in the crypto-friendly Texas state.
The city led by Mayor Mattie Parker approved the project by a vote in the city council on April 26.
Fort Worth will install and maintain three Bitmain S9 mining computers in a climate-controlled location donated by the Texas Blockchain Council. The mining computers will be installed in the Information Technology Solutions Department Data Center located at Fort Worth City Hall.
Lee Bratcher, President of the Texas Blockchain Council said, “Fort Worth has the geographic proximity to miners and a supportive city leadership that make it a front runner to be the bitcoin mining capital of Texas and therefore the U.S.”
The computers will be housed on a private network to minimize risk. The mining rigs will run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Each of the three machines will consume as much energy as a household vacuum cleaner.
“These small but powerful machines mark Fort Worth’s larger commitment to becoming a leading hub for technology and innovation,” said Mayor Parker.
The cost of electricity needed to run the program is expected to be offset by the Bitcoin mined by it.
The city has also partnered with Luxor Technologies, a crypto service provider and bitcoin miner Rhadium Enterprises to carry out the project in a proper manner.
“Mayor Parker is setting an example and effectively de-risking both bitcoin mining and bitcoin treasury strategies for every other mayor in the country, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more announcements like this coming in the future,” said Alex Brammer, VP of business development for Luxor.
The city will invest considerable cash in the project only after a re-assessment, carried out after six months.
While the Fort Worth city government has itself started Bitcoin mining, on the other hand, the New York State Assembly has passed a bill into the Senate to impose a two-year ban on crypto mining operations that use proof-of-work authentication methods to validate blockchain transactions.
