2 Bitcoin (BTC) mining giants are duking information technology out for cheap electricity in a tiny town in Texas.

Both Bitdeer, a mining house that spun out from Chinese behemothic Bitmain, and Riot Blockchain, one of the leading publicly traded Bitcoin mining firms in the Usa, are operating data centers hosted at a former aluminum smelting facility in the Texan boondocks of Rockdale.

The boondocks's aluminum smelting plant was previously the world's largest, until the visitor that ran it, Alcoa, began winding upwards operations in 2008. According to Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, the facility's energy capacity was wasted from Alcoa's deviation until the miners ready shop.

Despite Rockdale beingness a tiny rural town of just 5,600 people, information technology exhibits all the benefits sought later by industrial-scale miners — crypto-friendly politicians, large plots of land hosting abandoned industrial infrastructure ripe for repurposing, and dirt-inexpensive electricity prices thanks to Texas' deregulated market place.

Rockdale Mayor John King describes the human relationship between the local grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, and miners as mutually benign. He emphasized that miners regularly consume electrical power that would otherwise be wasted, and they can likewise shut down operations instantly should power exist needed elsewhere. He added:

"Miners are committed to buying a certain amount of power and what they practice is they sell it back at market [value] and make a profit. They have a contract of two cents or three cents...and they can sell information technology for $9 a kilowatt hour."

As reported by Cointelegraph on Oct. 7, Riot Blockchain has more than tripled its Bitcoin production this year.

The firm now estimates that the facility is producing more than than 500 BTC per calendar month from its facility in Rockdale. At current prices, the mined coins equate to $thirty 1000000 per month. Anarchism said the site hosts 100,000 mining rigs.

Related: Crypto cowboys: Texas counties welcome Bitcoin miners with open arms

Texan lawmakers are pushing for a further expansion in the state's Bitcoin mining cover, with Senator Ted Cruz describing mining as a ways to capture natural gas that the land currently flares.

Speaking during the Oct. ten Texas Blockchain Meridian, Cruz argued that natural gas is currently being flared in West Texas because "there is no transmission equipment to get that natural gas where it could be used the mode natural gas would commonly exist employed."

"Employ that power to mine Bitcoin. Function of the beauty of that is the instant you're doing it you're helping the environment enormously because rather than flaring the natural gas yous're putting it to productive use," he added.