Week in BTX: December 30, 2021
Merry Christmas from the Fam-O-Lee
Hope y’all had a Merry Christmas and got some down time away from screens. I didn’t log into Bitcoin twitter or check Bitcoin’s price for 24 hours and it was amazing. Be sure to remind your friends and family that on New Years Eve 2020 the price of Bitcoin was hovering around $29,000.
If y’all have not attended a Bitcoin Meetup in person you are missing out, add that to your New Year’s Resolutions. A big thanks to Al’s Lacrosse and Parker Lewis for hosting the Houston Bitcoin Meetup.
The December Houston Bitcoin meetup had a great panel of Bitcoin miners, thanks to all for participating, including Trent Stout and Nick Gates from Priority Power, Jesse Peltan and Gideon Powell from HODL Ranch, Chad Everett Harris from RIOT/Whinstone, Ryan Turner from Stronghold, and Joe Rodgers from BTC Media.
General
NYDIG leased over 26,000 square feet of office space at Woodloch Forest Tower in The Woodlands. NYDIG has aggressively expanded in Texas with partnerships with Landry’s and Houston Rockets and helped the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund take a step in diversifying its investments in Bitcoin.
Austin based Multicoin Capital record profits have gotten the attention of Washington, DC insider publication Axios, reporting that Multicoin recently told investors that its hedge fund assets have soared 20,287% since inception in October 2017, and that its first venture capital fund has returned more than 28x (net of fees), per two sources who saw the presentation.
RadioShack’s (formally headquartered in Fort Worth) new owners have rebranded into DeFi……😭😭😭
Public Policy/Politics/Regulatory
Prominent Bitcoiners, including Texans Jimmy Song, former Texas Rangers MLB All-Star Pitcher CJ Wilson and BitBlockBoom’s Gary Leland wrote “Bitcoin and the American Dream: The New Monetary Technology Transcending Our Political Divide” with the goal of educating our elected officials and their staff. Buy a couple books and give them to your State Representative, State Senator, Congressman and US Senator when you go meet with them to talk Bitcoin.
Mining
Interim CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Brad Jones continues to support Bitcoin mining, this time saying that mining is helping solve the intermittency issues with solar generation in Texas at a public forum in Frisco, Texas (comments start at 46 minute mark).
The City of Abilene announced a partnership with Lancium to build a 200MW Bitcoin mining facility in Taylor County. The company's expected capital investment is $2.4 billion over 20 years, creating 57 jobs with an average salary of $57,600 (with benefits, $72,000). The City of Abilene created a reinvestment zone which will be annexed into the city limits and the project was granted tax abatement. The company will make an annual payment of $485,607.51 to the city in lieu of taxes for 20 years.
Based on recent job postings it appears Bitmain has opened an office in the Galleria area of Houston.
Events
Keep Austin Pleb New Years Eve Bash Dec. 31 in Austin
Bitcoin2022 Conference April 6-9, 2022 in Miami (10% off with code TEXAS10)
Digital Wildcatter’s Energy + Bitcoin Mining Conference Spring 2022 in Houston
Consensus June 10-12, 2022 in Austin
BitBlockParty June 10, 2022 during Consensus in Austin
Coin Center Annual Dinner June 10, 2022 during Consensus in Austin
BitBlockBoom August 25-28, 2022, in Austin
Energy + Bitcoin Mining coming to Houston, TX in Spring 2022.
Jobs
Unchained Capital is hiring for 17 positions based in Austin & Dallas.
Lancium LLC (Bitcoin Miner) is hiring for 4 position based in The Woodlands.
Rhodium is hiring for numerous positions based in Austin.
Aggie lead Giga Energy is hiring electricians.
NYDIG is hiring 3 roles in the Houston area.
The Blockchain Association’s job board shows 21 Texas based jobs.
Core Scientific is hiring a Data Center Site Manager in Pecos
Bitmain is hiring a Mining Farm Operation Manager in Houston and for 2 positions based in Rockdale.
People on the Move (Literally this time)
Compass Mining chief Whit Gibbs is moving to Austin to set up Compass Media HQ.
Bitcoin Citadel
Fairfield Lake Ranch is on the market for about 2,322 Bitcoin. This 5,025 acre ranch is the largest private water offering in the state of Texas. The lake is a 2,400-acre body of water surrounded by a 21-mile elevated shoreline blanketed with a mature hardwood forest.
To Ponder While You Wander
“We chose Abilene for our second Clean Campus because of its ideal location, proximity to abundant wind and solar generation, high-quality workforce and the opportunities to grow in the future. We want to thank the city, county and all of the members of the economic development team that worked together to help make this significant milestone possible” - Michael McNamara, Co-founder and CEO of Lancium.