Bitcoin miners have become energy hunters, scouring the world for cheap electricity. When most people think about bitcoin mining operations, they imagine hydro-powered warehouses in Canada or the Sichuan Mountains, but what about the oil capital of the United States? What if it were possible to turn otherwise-wasted natural gas into bitcoin? Texas’ Natural Gas Problem Growing up in Texas, oil wells were a part of life. Oil prices were high, and we had a ton of it. In my quiet college town, they were everywhere. We even made national headlines as the first city in the country to try and ban fracking (And lost, obviously). Then came the slump. From 2015-2017 , oil fell from over $115 per barrel to under $35. And it wasn’t just the roughnecks and drill-hands that were affected. The drop devastated entire communities in the Lone Star State. It created ghost towns , […]