Cryptocurrency boom falls on hard times in Central Washington

[TexasTowelie]

For one of the biggest names in Central Washington’s bitcoin boom, 12 months has made a world of difference.

Last October, Giga Watt was on a scorching upward trajectory. With prices for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies soaring and international investors clamoring for a piece of the digital action, the East Wenatchee-based company had expanded to 62 employees and raised tens of millions of dollars for what it hoped would be a game-changing project: a sprawling campus of 24 prefabricated buildings where would-be crypto “miners” could run their own computers and solve the complicated mathematical algorithms that yield the digital gold.

As the pods arose from a muddy site near the Douglas County airport, local government officials talked excitedly about the emergence of a new, 21st-century industry based on the complex “blockchain” technologies that enable bitcoin and other cryptocurrency. Giga Watt and its founder, a former Seattle-area programmer named Dave Carlson, saw themselves on that revolution’s cutting edge.

Now it’s a starkly different picture. Last month, beset by millions of dollars in debt, ongoing legal problems and questions about its unconventional financing, Giga Watt laid off 80 percent of its staff and suspended all construction. Carlson himself stepped down in August.

Read more: https://lmtribune.com/business/cryptocurrency-boom-falls-on-hard-times-in-central-washington/article_37bae6e3-4da3-50b4-adb3-5fa60eb74d6e.html

[3Hotdogs]

1. Like my Uncle Al use'ta say, "Little Doggie (I was just a kid then) if you don't understand it,

(investment) don't buy it.