First U.S. City Announces That They Are Mining Bitcoin

On April 26th, 2022 Fort Worth, Texas Mayor Mattie Parker announced that the city government is now mining Bitcoin. As the first U.S. city to ever mine Bitcoin, Fort Worth is devoted to learning more and possibly expanding their current mining operations in the future.

Currently there are three Bitmain Antminer S9 mining rigs running in Fort Worth City Hall’s climate-controlled IT wing. A private network for the miners was also set up in order to increase security. The officials associated with the program have stated that the miners will run 24 hours a day and seven days a week. 

Fort Worth’s Bitcoin mining program is starting very small in order to gauge the amount of energy required and for the IT staff to learn more about supporting the Bitcoin network. Parker does not expect the miners to make significant profits for the time being. Earnings will also most likely offset the energy payments. 

You may view the launch of Fort Worth’s miners below in Parker’s tweet:

Prior to initial setup, Fort Worth was required to ensure that current policies and legislation were followed. Parker explained that “This is something brand new for any city…There’s a lot of policy here that we’ve had to jump through hoops to understand.”

In order to set up the miners, the city teamed up with the Texas Blockchain Council and accepted the three S9 ASIC machines as donations. Each miner is estimated to be worth around $600 each and did not require taxpayer funding. Luxor Technologies also contributed to the project by connecting the miners to their mining pool.

Parker has currently served a little less than a year as mayor but is committed to helping Fort Worth get acquainted with the Bitcoin network. She states that “We’re the fastest growing city in the country. There’s so much excitement around North Texas and Fort Worth, in particular. To really keep that energy going, we have to push ourselves differently, and we think cryptocurrency is a huge part of our future economy.”

After a six month trial period, Parker and other Fort Worth officials will determine whether or not the city should invest more resources into Bitcoin mining.