An Appalachian town was told a bitcoin mine would bring an economic boom.

[Fla Dem]

An Appalachian town was told a bitcoin mine would bring an economic boom. It got noise pollution and an eyesore.

Supporters of the crypto plant promised an expanded tax base and job creation. What residents say they got was the constant din from massive computers and equally massive cooling fans.
By Kevin Williams
Yesterday at 10:02 a.m. EDT

LIMESTONE, Tenn. — It started as a low hum one day last spring. Then it got louder, and soon some residents said the noise was like a jet engine idling on a nearby tarmac.

The unincorporated clutch of homes and churches at the base of the Appalachian Mountains offers expansive vistas of lush farmland, thick woods and towering ridges in all directions. Neighbors know one another. Most residents have family bonds spanning generations or moved to this tranquil patch to escape city noise.

Instead, the noise came to them in April last year when the Tennessee-based firm Red Dog Technologies opened a plant in Limestone to mine (or create) new bitcoin, the original and still-largest cryptocurrency. The process relies on massive computers performing complex calculations — all while kept at a constant temperature by equally massive cooling fans — and that can get noisy.

Cryptocurrency is suddently everywhere except in the cash register

The Limestone mine operates day and night, growing louder at night and on weekends when bitcoin’s electricity-hungry computers can take advantage of down time and lower prices on the electricity grid and ramp up their algorithmic-solving power.
“We couldn’t have people over to gather in our front yard because we could hardly hear one another talking,” said Preston Holley, whose home sits across the street from the mine.

Appalachia, with its cheap electricity from coal, natural gas and hydro, was already attractive to bitcoin miners when China, which dominated world production, cracked down on such operations last summer, worried about the volatility of digital currencies. Companies forced out of China began scouting new locations across rural America. Appalachia, more accustomed to coal-caked helmeted workers than tech-savvy blockchain enthusiasts, saw an influx of miners.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/18/bitcoin-mining-noise-pollution-appalachia/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F365873f%2F6234af863e6ed13ade2cb324%2F602bea569bbc0f73f6ccfcfc%2F29%2F72%2F6234af863e6ed13ade2cb324

[yankee87]

1. Desperation

Like all of these get rich quick schemes, nothing ever comes of them. I live in Ohio and seen these happening here all the time, Chilli can, Lordstown Motors, in WI, Foxxcon.

[Joinfortmill]

2. A nightmare

[XanaDUer2]

3. I understand bitcoin so little

I had no idea it was mined. So, it comes out of the Earth? I thought it was some made up created thing.

So, now the residents' quality of life is diminished. These things seem to blow up badly a lot

[cbabe]

4. Mined is a metaphor for computer work. Lots of computers generate lots of heat. So need lots of

cooling. The whole enterprise requires lots of cheap electricity. Ruins lots of small towns that have cheap electric rates. Sucking up all available electricity leaving residents paying higher rates.

I remember reading China is banning some Bitcoin enterprises because of the huge energy use.

[XanaDUer2]

5. Oh, thank you

I'm ignorant, and just want regular money.