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Local officials from Douglas County in the United States, located in central Washington, want to build a blockchain innovation campus, the local newspaper The Seattle Times reports January 11.
According to the article above, the county is already used to host a substantial mining crypto industry. Cryptic miners have been attracted to various central Washington counties due to their access to the power generated by hydropower; however, the mining boom was shut down in 2018, after the market crisis.
The Seattle Times writes that local officials hope the blockchain can power a less volatile industry. The article cites Lisa Parks, executive director of the Port of Douglas County, which states:
"There's more to the [cryptocurrency] history that the boom and the bust ".
The Douglas County Department of Commerce will contribute $ 50,000 to the grant for the creation of the blockchain innovation campus.
The already rich local activity linked to the cryptocurrency has left the county an abundant experience of high-speed computing and encryption, which, together with low-cost economic access, is an advantage for the development of this technology, according to The Seattle Times. Perks would have declared:
"We have some unique resources that make our region attractive for that industry. […] We are looking for a way to capitalize on it. "
Not all the counties in central Washington have been so friendly to the industry. As Cointelegraph reported in November last year, the public utility district of Chelan County, in central Washington, proposed a new electricity price structure for cryptocurrant miners designed to bring down the cost of 39, increase in demand for electricity.
Also, in April of last year, the news broke that Chelan PUD commissioners ordered the staff to enforce a moratorium on cryptocurrency mines following the discovery of unauthorized mining activities.
The city of Ephrata, Washington, also reported breaking new developments in the mining crypt in the city for the 12 months following October of last year. On the other hand, according to reports, Douglas County has not increased energy prices for new miners so sharply, waiting to develop the industry.
In November 2018, the leading producer of ASIC Bitmain and cryptocurrency mining opened a $ 20 million mining facility in Douglas County, which will use 12 megawatts of electricity. This amount of energy, according to the article, is enough to feed anywhere from 1,500 to 4,800 homes.
According to the article, this trend continued even after the big encryption company and Giga Watt, a blockchain company, filed for bankruptcy in November 2018, allegedly due to Douglas County's public utility district for over $ 310,000.
The Port of Douglas County, which owns the Giga Watt facilities, is now in talks with several groups of investors on the use of mining facilities or other computational applications such as analysis of data or artificial intelligence (AI).
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