In a big move, city council of Fort Worth, Texas, has approved mining Bitcoin, and will use three ASIC Bitmain AntMiner S9 rigs donated by the Texas Blockchain Council. Decrypt reported.
According to the reports from Decrypt, rigs, which have a maximum hashrate of 13.5 terahash per second (TH/s), will operate on a private network in a climate-controlled data center at City Hall. A terahash equals 1 trillion hashes, or the computational power of a mining rig as it attempts to solve a complex algorithm and add transactions to the Bitcoin network.
Forth Worth City council council voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a resolution to accept the miners from the nonprofit, making it the first U.S. city to mine its own Bitcoin.
The city’s Mayor, Mattie Parker who confirmed the new development in a statement said:
“With blockchain technology and cryptocurrency revolutionizing the financial landscape, we want to transform Fort Worth into a tech-friendly city.
“Today, with the support and partnership of Texas Blockchain Council, we’re stepping into that world on a small scale while sending a big message, Fort Worth is where the future begins.”He added.
Also, spokesperson from the mayor’s office said that NYDIG will custody the city’s Bitcoin.
According to him, the city estimates what each of the mining rigs will consume which equals the amount of energy as a household vacuum cleaner. Adding that the amount of Bitcoin mined by the machines will offset the costs of operating them.
The city has however said that It is an intentionally small operation, saying it will evaluate the mining program in six months before deciding whether to continue.
The S9 rigs, which weigh roughly 9 pounds, are relatively small compared to the company’s newer Antminer S19 rig, which boasts 95 TH/s. At 85 decibels, the S9 rigs each produce about as much noise as a household blender.
Decrypt reports that the donated rigs are expected to generate gains of $2 to $3 per day, according to Minerstat, a crypto mining tracking platform.
