https://ift.tt/9gNi7kJ is mined with waste gas in Texas

Yesterday, the New York Post published an article telling the interesting story of two young men from Texas who became millionaires thanks to Bitcoin mining. 

Texas, Bitcoin mining with waste gas

They are 23-year-old Brent Whitehead and Matt Lohstroh, founders of Giga Energy Solutions. Their company recovers waste gas extracted from oil fields in Texas and produces electricity from it to mine Bitcoin.

So-called “flare gas” is natural gas extracted in excess along with oil. This gas is usually burned on site because it is uneconomical to exploit, and it causes the famous flare above the oil extraction towers.

Whitehead and Lohstroh are two recent Texas graduates who made $4 million using this gas to mine Bitcoin.

Their company brought shipping containers containing ASICs to the oil wells’ vicinity and powered them with electricity generated on-site by special generators using the flare gas. 

Clean mining

The business grew so quickly that it allowed them to strike deals with 20 oil companies, four of them publicly traded. Giga Energy Solutions is also reportedly negotiating with sovereign wealth funds to expand its business further. 

Their solution actually has zero environmental impact because it burns gas that would be burned anyway. That is, it doesn’t emit any additional CO2 but recovers the otherwise wasted energy produced by combustion to mine Bitcoin. 

Whitehead, who has more experience as an engineer, said: 

“Growing up, I always saw flares, just being in the oil and gas industry. I knew how wasteful it was.

It’s a new way to not only lower emissions but to monetize gas.”

Lohstroh, who of the two is the one most passionate about Bitcoin, added: 

“No one controls it, and you don’t have to ask permission to use it.

That’s really what drew me to bitcoin.” 

Thanks partly to solutions like these, the US has become the undisputed global leader in Bitcoin mining, taking away the scepter the Chinese held until last year. Moreover, they are solutions that help make this energy-intensive activity less and less polluting.