Bitcoin Mining Becomes Big Business In Montana As The Senator Defends Bitcoin Mining

“As the demand for Bitcoin miners increases and supply of cheap reliable electricity from coal generation decreases,” Senator Daines explained during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee meeting in Washington, DC, “this could pose a threat of the expansion of Bitcoin generation and even greater threat to energy supply and prices for Montana as a whole.”

For instance, Butte, Montana is home to the Crypto Watt LLC mining center. Having assumed control over an industrial site, it depends on the coal-fire powered Colstrip plant for 64 megawatts of power, making it one of the hungriest users of energy in the whole state. Senator Daines clarified the plant is planned for a shutdown in under ten years, and if every one of the four of the plant’s sectors is shuttered that could well end Montana’s bitcoin mining industry.

Such an edified stance by the state’s politics is not really new. The previous summer, its governor reported close to half a million dollars would be awarded to bitcoin miner Project Spokane for business growth, work creation, and worker training.

Senator Bullock clarified at the time, “Missoula County received $416,000 of BSTF Job Creation funds to assist Project Spokane, LLC to expand, which will allow the company to create 65 new jobs in Bonner. The BSTF funds will be used for the purchase of equipment, machinery, furniture, and software and for wage reimbursement. Project Spokane, LLC is a data center that provides blockchain security services for the bitcoin network.”

The Bonner bitcoin mining office is doing as such well, it’s generally expected to extend its processing ability from 12,000 to 55,000 rigs. The mining business can flourish in the state thanks to a friendly political atmosphere, as well as through its natural temperatures. Miners lean toward colder territories to keep machines running great, also bringing down cooling costs. Obviously, reliable, minimal cost energy helps also.