Close Menu
  • Coins
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Altcoins
    • NFT
  • Blockchain
  • DeFi
  • Metaverse
  • Regulation
  • Other
    • Exchanges
    • ICO
    • GameFi
    • Mining
    • Legal
  • MarketCap
What's Hot

‘Money Printing’ Will Lift Bitcoin to $250K This Year: Arthur Hayes

03/07/2025

Circle Keeps Surging, GameStop’s Bitcoin ‘Black Box’, Ethereum Treasury Tanks

03/07/2025

Trump Crypto Dinner: Here’s Who’s Going

03/07/2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
  • Back to NBTC homepage
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
X (Twitter) Telegram Facebook LinkedIn RSS
NBTC News
  • Coins
    1. Bitcoin
    2. Ethereum
    3. Altcoins
    4. NFT
    5. View All

    ‘Money Printing’ Will Lift Bitcoin to $250K This Year: Arthur Hayes

    03/07/2025

    Here’s How Much BTC He Currently Owns

    03/07/2025

    Bitcoin Price Just Made History, but What Happens Next?

    03/07/2025

    Strategy Up 2,930% Since 2020 Bitcoin Bet as Saylor Stays Bullish

    03/07/2025

    SharpLink Gaming Makes Bold $4.82M Ethereum Investment, Reinforcing Massive Digital Asset Strategy

    02/07/2025

    Unveiling the Crucial Impact of a $39.8M Coinbase Prime Transfer

    02/07/2025

    Will Ethereum Coin Hold the $2,400 Support?

    02/07/2025

    Ethereum Transaction Activity Surges as Analysts Predict Breakout Toward $10K

    02/07/2025

    Trump Crypto Dinner: Here’s Who’s Going

    03/07/2025

    As Bitcoin Sets a New Record, Massive Altcoin Whales Are Back in Action — Here Are Their Transactions and Tokens of Focus

    03/07/2025

    Will His Risky Moves Lead to a Massive Downfall?

    03/07/2025

    KAITO price prediction after Kaito Pro Mobile Beta update

    03/07/2025

    Art Blocks’ PostParams Enable a New Medium for Generative Art

    03/07/2025

    Researchers Use AI to Reconstruct 3,000-Year-Old Babylonian Hymn

    02/07/2025

    Ubisoft Adds AI Agents to ‘Captain Laserhawk’ Game That Vote and Govern

    01/07/2025

    Donald Trump Made His New Move Concerning Memecoin TRUMP!

    01/07/2025

    ‘Money Printing’ Will Lift Bitcoin to $250K This Year: Arthur Hayes

    03/07/2025

    Circle Keeps Surging, GameStop’s Bitcoin ‘Black Box’, Ethereum Treasury Tanks

    03/07/2025

    Trump Crypto Dinner: Here’s Who’s Going

    03/07/2025

    Here’s How Much BTC He Currently Owns

    03/07/2025
  • Blockchain

    Worldcoin Launches Human-Focused Blockspace on World Chain Mainnet

    02/07/2025

    Crossmint and Visa Team Up to Secure On-Chain AI Agent Payments

    02/07/2025

    SINT Partners with Spheron Network to Power AI Agent Operations with Decentralized GPU Power

    02/07/2025

    Hotcoin and Web3 Decision Forge AI-Powered Partnership for Safer Web3

    02/07/2025

    Orbler and IIICC Unite to Power a Green and Decentralized Future of AI

    02/07/2025
  • DeFi

    Crypto startups pull $1.15B across 140 deals in June 2025, up 9% from May count

    03/07/2025

    Mind AI Collaborates with AIxBlock to Power Decentralized AI Development, Workflow Automation

    03/07/2025

    Wormhole and Stacks Integrate to Enable Seamless Cross-Chain Bitcoin for DeFi Innovation

    03/07/2025

    Stabble Taps Kima Network to Streamline Cross-Chain and Fiat Deposits on Solana

    03/07/2025

    Coinbase Acquires Token Management Platform LiquiFi as Exchange Aims to Expand Its Services

    03/07/2025
  • Metaverse

    Microsoft’s AI Diagnoses Like House, Bills Like Costco

    02/07/2025

    Mark Zuckerberg Unveils New Meta AI Lab After Poaching OpenAI Talent

    01/07/2025

    Can China’s MiniMax-M1 AI Topple US Rivals? We Put It to the Test

    28/06/2025

    Meta and OpenAI Use of Copyrighted Books for Training AI Was Fair Use: Federal Judge

    26/06/2025

    How to Get Your Chatbot to Talk Dirty

    18/06/2025
  • Regulation

    Circle Keeps Surging, GameStop’s Bitcoin ‘Black Box’, Ethereum Treasury Tanks

    03/07/2025

    Former Ripple Director Predicts How Much Valuation Ripple Could Have If it Files for IPO

    03/07/2025

    Trump Quietly Earned $57M from Family-Backed Crypto, New Filing Shows

    03/07/2025

    Crypto Remittances Fell Nearly 45% in El Salvador

    03/07/2025

    BSC Foundation Boosts Ecosystem with Strategic Crypto Purchase

    03/07/2025
  • Other
    1. Exchanges
    2. ICO
    3. GameFi
    4. Mining
    5. Legal
    6. View All

    Top Optimism DEX Velodrome Launches On-Chain Swap Infra for Superchain

    03/07/2025

    new era for derivative trading on onchain wallet

    03/07/2025

    FTX Reveals Next Repayment Date to Fully Compensate Large Creditors

    03/07/2025

    Gate Surpasses 30 Million Global Users, Accelerating Its Rise as the Next-Generation Crypto Exchange

    03/07/2025

    ICO for bitcoin yield farming chain Corn screams we’re so back

    22/01/2025

    Why 2025 Will See the Comeback of the ICO

    26/12/2024

    Moku Chief Business Officer shares why crypto gaming is broken — and how to fix it

    03/07/2025

    Wimbledon Stars Lead ‘Flappy Racquet’ Telegram Game Ahead of SCOR Token Launch

    02/07/2025

    Complete Guide to the Web3 Strategy Game

    02/07/2025

    MattleFun Integrates Adventure Layer’s Gaming L2 Solution to Power Advanced Web3 Gaming Experience

    01/07/2025

    CleanSpark’s Tennessee expansion boosts stock 11% amid local unrest

    03/07/2025

    What Are Bitcoin Miners Waiting For?

    02/07/2025

    MARA Bitcoin Production Slides 25% as Mining Environment Toughens

    02/07/2025

    Bitcoin Network Hashrate Declined in June as Miners Reacted to Recent Heatwave: JPMorgan

    01/07/2025

    Why the XRP Legal Battle Still Isn’t Officially Over

    03/07/2025

    Senate Passed Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” With 51-49 Vote

    03/07/2025

    Ripple’s post-2018 XRP sales to institutional buyers don’t violate SEC conditions

    02/07/2025

    New Developments Regarding the Fate of Terra (LUNA) Founder Do Kwon – There May Be a Glimmer of Hope, Here Are the Critical Dates

    02/07/2025

    ‘Money Printing’ Will Lift Bitcoin to $250K This Year: Arthur Hayes

    03/07/2025

    Circle Keeps Surging, GameStop’s Bitcoin ‘Black Box’, Ethereum Treasury Tanks

    03/07/2025

    Trump Crypto Dinner: Here’s Who’s Going

    03/07/2025

    Here’s How Much BTC He Currently Owns

    03/07/2025
  • MarketCap
NBTC News
Home»Mining»Bitcoin Mining’s Boon for Small Town America
Mining

Bitcoin Mining’s Boon for Small Town America

NBTCBy NBTC06/04/2024No Comments9 Mins Read
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email


It isn’t always clear how crypto is changing lives. The incorporality of blockchain ledgers, the fact that crypto wallets are online (not made of leather) and the limited number of real world use cases all contribute to the common view that crypto, at most, is silly internet money. But for as ethereal as Ethereum is, crypto does have an actual footprint.

That idea is at the center of a new documentary about Bitcoin mining by Will Foxley, ex-CoinDesker turned independent crypto media mogul. Released today, “The Big Empty,” tells the story of when digital asset heavyweight Galaxy Digital descends on the small, rural and nearly hollowed out city of Spur (population: 863).

Unlike many stories about bitcoin mining, which tend to focus on the industry’s intense energy footprint (and whether that is good or bad), “The Big Empty” is first and foremost about people. About the former East Coast Galaxy employees who moved to West Texas and learned to adjust, about the locals whose families settled in the area generations ago and about the lives changed by a new industry.

In a way, Bitcoin mining was destined to become a controversial topic by the way the network was designed. The proof-of-work algorithm that keeps Bitcoin humming burns through energy without limit. Every year, it seems, more mines open — often using carbon-intensive sources of energy, sometimes even firing up defunct coal power plants.

See also: The Honest Truth About Bitcoin Mining, Energy and the Environment

But on the ground that debate seems muted, at least as the documentary presents it. The energy mix of miners and looming threat of climate change are as incorporeal and distant as Bitcoin itself. To the extent that Spur’s residents seem concerned about the giant Helios mine opening a few miles down the road, it’s often just because of the jobs it has been providing.

“The small towns [bitcoin mines] inhabit often don’t have many high paying or stable jobs,” Foxley told CoinDesk in an interview. “There may be a few retail shops, convenience stores, things like that, but it’s not a lot.”

To say that Galaxy is single handedly revitalizing the town of Spur might be overstating the case , but it seems incontrovertible that it has a presence. But as much as the doc highlights Galaxy’s good deeds (like reopening a beloved public pool), it is also a story about, as Foxley says, keeping that up and learning to be “a good neighbor,” which isn’t necessarily assured in the long haul.

CoinDesk caught up with Foxley to talk about his latest documentary, what attracted him to the story of Spur in particular and why it is that a massive bitcoin mine might be a good fit for a city that was previously best known as a magnet for tiny homes.

Just wanted to say it was a great doc, really well done. Are you planning to submit it to any festivals?

It was definitely a very strong team, so I can’t take all the credit. This would be my third mining specific film and fourth bitcoin doc. It’s my longest by far — I personally call it my first short film. I don’t know the difference between a short film or a documentary or mini doc. I’ll probably submit it to some film festivals to try to get some more traction. Will definitely screen it at some bitcoin meetups and events If we try to do any sort of streaming services, we can’t go the social media route. But if someone likes it, we might be able to place it somewhere cool.

In some sense the story of bitcoin mining in the U.S. is the story of revitalization. Could you speak to what you’ve seen when touring bitcoin mines around the country?

Bitcoin miners are flocking to small towns because that’s often where there’s excess energy from industries that have left or cheaper power from overbuilt substations and power stations. It’s a natural place for bitcoin miners to go because they have to chase cheap energy.

The small towns they inhabit often don’t have many high paying or stable jobs. They don’t have any sort of industry at this point. There may be a few retail shops, convenience stores, things like that, but it’s not a lot. To really revitalize a town you need some sort of industry.

Bitcoin mining is interesting because there might not be that many jobs per bitcoin mine. But you create a lot of external jobs around that. In the film, you’ll see there’s tons of people who work in contracting and are in and out of the facility, truck drivers, repair technicians, people pouring concrete, security guards. Even just thinking about the facility, they plan on opening up a kitchen to feed the 40 workers there. That’s going to be like five to 10 new jobs.

Do you have a sense of what technicians are generally paid?

Often it’s double minimum wage, $20-$30 bucks an hour for an intro technician. It scales up from there. One of the great pieces we didn’t even get to fit in the doc is that Galaxy pays 20% above the rate for the town. Bitcoin mining is a slightly more lucrative industry. So they raised a lot of people’s standards of living even doing a sort of blue collar level job.

Was there something specific about Galaxy or Helios that attracted you to the story?

Mostly just access. Galaxy was interested in opening up the doors. Corporations have to be mindful of their public image, (Galaxy is publicly traded), but I was impressed by how willing they were to work with a documentary film crew, because that’s not always a very comfortable experience.

The second thing — there’s a lot of these Texas bitcoin mining stories that I’m not very interested in because people tend to focus on the energy or bitcoin side of things. I was really interested in the small town story, and participating in town life. Most people we talked to were immediately open to having a conversation or dialogue, which made it more attractive when we scoped it out last year.

See also: How Bitcoin Mining Has Changed Since the Last Halving

There was actually a tornado the day we landed that took out a large chunk of the neighboring town. One thing that was really interesting to see was how many people from all the surrounding towns drove out to help them out. There were miles of cars with supplies trying to get into that small town. It became pretty clear that the people who live in these towns in West Texas are just a different breed. They care about each other. They’re good neighbors.

You definitely get that sense watching the movie. Especially the scene with the tiny home community. What were you trying to say by including those scenes?

So the initial name for the film actually was “Tiny Home Kingdom.” We were trying to riff on, like, tiny homes versus a mega bitcoin mine. It sounded good on paper. But you probably have to make the doc a little more silly to go that route. You know, live with someone in their tiny home for a week.

The tiny homes showed how open Spur was in working and talking with other communities outside of what you’d find normally in the Texas panhandle. They opened their doors around 2015 to become a location for tiny homes. Many cities are zoned to block tiny homes, because they find it annoying or think it lowers property valuations. Spur was trying to find an angle to bring people back. It shows that they’re interested in having new neighbors — it’s just that the next neighbor to move in happened to be an 800 megawatt bitcoin mine.

Galaxy also struck a deal to reopen the town pool. Are these types of investments common for bitcoin mines?

It’s pretty common to have bitcoin mines do this. I’ve heard other stories where it’s also been a town pool. I’ve heard about companies fixing the community rec center. The Riot team in Rockdale funds the local softball team. It’s because, again, when you move into a small town like this you have to become a good neighbor. You have to learn what that looks like, and as a corporation that can be kind of hard. It’s not like a lot of other tech or finance jobs; the business really runs out of one small rural town that has been the same way for generations. The easiest way to ingratiate yourself into the community is often by doing something practical.

Another thing we didn’t get to touch on is that Spur is a hotspot for drug issues, like a lot of low income places. We often think of drugs as being an urban problem. But it’s very much a rural problem. There’s not a lot of hope and opportunity. A lot of people are born in Spur and move away to Lubbock or Austin or Dallas. And the people who are there sometimes can feel left behind. In some sense, the pool is a symbol: this big tech company cares about the local people.

Did you talk to anyone concerned about noise pollution?

Not for this site. That could be a challenge going forward because they are deploying some air units. But right now, the facility is all immersion — it’s the largest immersion bitcoin mine to my knowledge in North America. The nice thing about immersion mining is it’s basically silent. And the mine itself is on its own little spot pretty far away from any housing development. About 10 miles away from the city Spur. And everything out there is at least a 20 minute drive. So there shouldn’t be any noise complaints to my knowledge.

See also: The Bitcoin Mining Debate Is Ignoring the People Most AffectedAny closing thoughts?

I would like this film and other work we do to encourage people to think outside the box — about how towns can bring in businesses and about how these companies can add to communities. I think Galaxy did a really good job with that. They fulfilled their promise with this pool everyone’s gonna be jumping and splashing around in. They even said that in the film, right? Like, if you’re not splashing in the pool this summer, then Galaxy failed.

I do think bitcoin mining is going to become a more important conversation for local communities. If bitcoin miners don’t find a good way of balancing their businesses within small towns, there’s going to be more problems. It’s OK for small towns to say they don’t like things.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
NBTC

Related Posts

CleanSpark’s Tennessee expansion boosts stock 11% amid local unrest

03/07/2025

What Are Bitcoin Miners Waiting For?

02/07/2025

MARA Bitcoin Production Slides 25% as Mining Environment Toughens

02/07/2025

Bitcoin Network Hashrate Declined in June as Miners Reacted to Recent Heatwave: JPMorgan

01/07/2025
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Top Posts
Get Informed

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news from NBTC regarding crypto, blockchains and web3 related topics.

Your source for the serious news. This website is crafted specifically to for crazy and hot cryptonews. Visit our main page for more tons of news.

We're social. Connect with us:

Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn RSS
Top Insights

‘Money Printing’ Will Lift Bitcoin to $250K This Year: Arthur Hayes

03/07/2025

Circle Keeps Surging, GameStop’s Bitcoin ‘Black Box’, Ethereum Treasury Tanks

03/07/2025

Trump Crypto Dinner: Here’s Who’s Going

03/07/2025
Get Informed

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news from NBTC regarding crypto, blockchains and web3 related topics.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.