Week in BTX: Friday April 8, 2022
Empower: Energizing Bitcoin > Miami
Hats off to Digital Wildcatters for putting on an amazing event last week in Houston. Only in Bitcoin and politics will the faithful brave a severe thunderstorm to attend an outdoors event, and y’all turned out big!
In typical Houston fashion the weather quickly cleared up and we had two beautiful days.
Great programing with industry leaders from energy and Bitcoin mining, plus everyone was very accessible throughout the conference. How many deals were made on the sidelines of the conference?
One day soon, the Empower: Energizing Bitcoin event will be bigger than Miami and will be held down the block from 8th Wonder Brewery at George R. Brown Convention Center.
Or as Senator Ted Cruz said, it will be held in an airport hanger surrounded by all our private jets. 😂😂😂
Hashrate Index published a great recap of the event if you missed out.
General
Jimmy Song on Bitcoin, not crypto in Bitcoin Magazine: “You’ve heard the buzzwords: Web3, NFTs, DeFi. But what do they mean? Compared to Bitcoin, pretty much nothing.”
The football team formerly known as the Houston Oilers is the first NFL team to accept Bitcoin as a payment. Bitcoin Magazine and UTXO Management advised the team on how to do it.
Laredo’s Vantage Bank to offer Bitcoin savings plan to its employees.
Axios-Momentive poll on crypto shows that;
Young adults dominate ownership of crypto: 27% of adults aged 18-34 say they own crypto vs. 15% of those 35-64 and just 5% of those 65+.
Men are almost twice as likely as women to say they own crypto (21% vs. 12%)
23% of Asians and 19% of Hispanics currently own crypto, slightly higher than whites (15%), Blacks (15%) and adults of another race (14%)
Overall, 16% of adults say they currently own cryptocurrency, yet the overwhelming majority (81%) don’t
Current cryptocurrency owners are:
3x as likely to view Bitcoin as “a good investment opportunity, but not as useful as a currency” (51% vs. 16%)
4x as likely to view Bitcoin as “a useful form of currency that provides a much needed alternative to U.S. dollars” (28% vs. 6%)
Axios' Ryan Lawler reports that BinanceUS raised $200 million in a seed round at a pre-money valuation of $4.5 billion, but is still not available to customers in large markets like Texas…..
The Texas Rangers Baseball Club announced an agreement with global trading community, Trade The Chain, to become the cryptocurrency partner of the Texas Rangers and paid the entirety of its sponsorship agreement in a basket of crypto assets that includes Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Public Policy/Politics/Regulatory
Classic Senator Ted Cruz: “Communist China and Elizabeth Warren hate Bitcoin for the same damn reason," he said, punctuating the point after a slight pause: "They cannot control it."
Texas State Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s campaign for US Congress was backed by the 2nd highest amount of special interest money this House election cycle. Crypto linked super PACs, Protect Our Future PAC and Web3 Forward, spent over $2 million in support of Rep. Crockett and she has advanced to the Democratic primary runoff election.
Senator Ted Cruz endorses fellow Bitcoiner Josh Mandel for US Senate in Ohio. Listen to Marty Bent’s podcast w Josh Mandel to learn how Josh was orange pilled.
ERCOT has started requiring new large-scale Bitcoin miners to seek permission to connect to the power grid in anticipation of a flood of requests expected to drive up electricity demand.
Mining
Senator Ted Cruz attended a Bitcoin miners roundtable on the sidelines of the Empower: Energizing Bitcoin event. About 75% of the Texas hashrate was present and did a deep dive on Bitcoin mining’s economic impact in Texas.
Blockstream and Jack Dorsey’s Block are breaking ground on a solar and battery powered bitcoin mine in Texas using solar and storage technology from Tesla. The mining facility is designed to be a proof of concept for 100% renewable energy bitcoin mining at scale.
Argo’s operations team is boots on the ground in Dickens County as they near the completion of the 200 MW Helios facility.
Core Scientific’s self-mining operations produced 1,143 bitcoins in March, averaging 36.9 bitcoins per day. As of March 31, 2022, the Company held 8,497 bitcoins produced from operations.
RIOT/Whinstone produced 511 BTC in March 2022 and currently has a deployed fleet of approximately 42,919 miners, with a hash rate capacity of 4.3 exahash per second.As of March 31, 2022, Riot held approximately 6,062 BTC, all produced by the company’s self-mining operations. In March 2022, Riot sold 200 Bitcoin at an average sales price of approximately $47,090 for $9.4 million.
CleanSpark is adding 200 megawatts of renewable power to its bitcoin mining operations in west Texas over the next year through an agreement signed with Houston based Lancium. The first 50 MW of the purchased capacity to be operational by the end of 2022, while the remaining 150 MW should be up and running during Spring 2023. The agreement also provisions an option to add an extra 300 MW of energy in the future.
The Corpus Christi City Council approved the first reading for Bootstrap Energy to build a $1.3 billion Bitcoin mining facility on the North-West side of town. This facility will employ about 35-50 workers with a median pay at about $50,000, with the possibility of growing to 100 workers and the facility will generate $4.5 million in tax revenue for the city.
Events
Bitcoin 2022 Conference April 6-9, 2022 in Miami (10% off with code TEXAS10)
Austin Bitcoin Club April 7, 2022
Midland Bitcoin Meetup April 14, 2022
San Antonio Bitcoin Meetup April 14, 2022
Fort Bitcoin Meetup April 14, 2022 in Fort Worth
Texas Beef (and Bitcoin) Initiative Conference April 23-24, 2022 in Kerrville
btc++ bitcoin dev conf in June 7-8, 2022 in Austin
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
Texas Blockchain Summit November 18, 2022 in Austin SAVE THE DATE
LinkedIn says Bitcoin and crypto job postings grew 395% in 2021: 3x the tech industry. Have a Bitcoin related job you want to promote? Reach out!
Jobs
Digital Wildcatters is hiring a Sales Account Manager in Houston
Marty Bent's TFTC is looking for a front-end developer to help implement a site-wide redesign. Requirements are experience building on Ghost and BTCPay Server.
Core Scientific is hiring in Austin, Denton, Pecos and Barstow
Rosseau is hiring a Data Center Manger ($120-$150k paid in USD and/or BTC) in Austin. Email talent at rosseau.io for more info.
TMGcore is hiring a Mine Manager - Crypto Mining Environment in Plano
Cormint Data Systems (Fort Bocks) is hiring a Data Center Technician in Fort Stockton
Bitmain is hiring a data center operator in Rockdale.
Lighting Capital is hiring its first employee, an experienced Go developer to help Lightning node operators manage their Bitcoin capital.
Rhodium is hiring 2 positions in Austin and Temple and an armed security officer in Rockdale.
Satoshi Energy is hiring 5 positions in Austin.
Argo Blockchain is hiring Security Guards, Blockchain Mining Technicians, Facility Cooling Engineers and Facility Electrical Engineers for its west Texas facility.
Compute North is hiring aSite Operations Manager in McCamey.
RIOT is hiring 2 positions in Austin, including Associate General Counsel.
Okcoin is hiring 3 positions based in Austin.
Poolin is hiring maintenance technicians and journeyman electricians in west Texas and corporate positions in Austin
Unchained Capital is hiring for 13 positions based in Austin & Dallas.
Lancium LLC is hiring positions based in The Woodlands and a Data Center Site Facilities Manager in Abilene.
NYDIG is hiring 7 roles in the Houston area.
Compass Mining is hiring in Austin
The Blockchain Association’s job board shows 68 Texas based jobs.
Bitcoiner Jobs shows 6 Texas based Bitcoin jobs.
People on the Move
The Texas Blockchain Council announced that Nathan Nichols has been selected by the TBC board as the new Chair of the Board.
Core Scientific announced that Denise Sterling, Senior Vice President of Finance, has been appointed to the role of Chief Financial Officer and will be moving to the Austin, TX headquarters later this year. Former CFO Michael Trzupek will leave the company to pursue new opportunities after a transition period.
Bitcoin Citadel
Devers Forest Ranch is on the market for about 30 Bitcoin. The ranch is off the grid, secluded and is in the heart of the southern gulf coast plains outside of Liberty, Tx. A mix of pine and hardwood timber with access roads and hunting galore.
To Ponder While You Wander
“Brandon wants to destroy your industry” - Senator Ted Cruz during his keynote remarks at Empower: Energizing Bitcoin event.