COLUMBUS, MS – Courtesy of Emma McRae and the Dispatch
For nearly a year, a bitcoin mining facility in Columbus has quietly operated thousands of computers around the clock, drawing on excess electricity capacity from Columbus Light and Water with hopes of expanding soon.
LM Funding America, Inc., which owns a Columbus-area Bitcoin mining operation, is looking at expanding their business. They currently run over 2,000 computers that work in concert, solving equations and performing other functions which serve to “farm” cryptocurrency. Their site runs on excess power, drawing from the grid only when it is not needed by local residences and businesses: Todd Liebel, vice president of LM Funding’s U.S. Digital Mining and Hosting Co. subsidiary, said that, “We don’t come in and try to get someone to build out more power to existing power. … CLW said, ‘Hey, we have this off-peak power, and if you want it, we’ll give it to you.’ It allowed us to tie into the grid. They didn’t have to build out any additional infrastructure. . . “…The whole name of the game for us is, we try to find cheap power, and the only way power is cheap is if, essentially, there’s excess power when people aren’t using it,” he added.
He explained that the building shuts down completely every day during times of peak usage (e.g. all afternoon during the summer), reactivating only when the city’s needs are met and CLW has some power to spare. “[If] there are any problems or anything like that, we’re happy to turn off (and) give the grid the power. You’re not anybody’s friend if … houses are running out of power.”
As CLW’s area grid has plenty of power to spare, the LM is looking into adding more computers to their operation.
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https://cdispatch.com/news/bitcoin-mining-operation-eyes-expansion-in-columbus
#columbusms #bitcoinmining #bitcoin #clw
image: The 2,300 specialized computers mining the cryptocurrency draw roughly 7.5 megawatts of electricity, though the company hopes to eventually expand to a full capacity of 11 megawatts. Courtesy of Todd Liebel
