Miami’s Bitcoin and crypto-friendly Mayor Francis Suarez is now setting up the stage to attract Chinese miners by wooing them with a low-cost nuclear power supply. Amid the recent crackdown in China, miners have been looking at overseas locations to continue their operations.
On the other hand, the crypto mining industry is taking turns for the good while moving towards renewable energy solutions. Suarez cites a good opportunity here and looks forward to taking steps that promote Bitcoin mining activities in the city.
Speaking to CNBC, the Miami Mayor said that he hasn’t yet received any calls from Chinese miners. However, the mayor his building his preparedness to woo miners by tapping the city’s excess supply of cheap nuclear energy power. Suarez added:
“We want to make sure that our city has an opportunity to compete,” he said. “We’re talking to a lot of companies and just telling them, ‘Hey, we want you to be here’”.
Suarez has been a crypto believer for years. Besides, with the U.S. government initiating massive stimulus measures and pumping more money in the economy, Suarez also took the plunge of investing in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Tapping the City’s Clean Nuclear Energy
Suarez emphasized on Miami’s reliance on nuclear power that serves as source of clean energy. In the entire state of Florida, nuclear energy is the second biggest source of energy after natural gas. “The fact that we have nuclear power means that it’s very inexpensive power,” he said.
Suarez said that he is currently in talks with Florida Power & Light Company for the division, energy distribution and the price of energy. “We understand how important this is…miners want to get to a certain kilowatt price per hour. And so we’re working with them on that,” said the Miami Mayor.
The mayor is also considering a mix of other incentives considering other enterprise zones for crypto mining. These zone spefically have infrastructure incentives, tax concessions, and scaled-back regulations.
But Maimi is not alone in its attempt to become a hub for crypto mining operations. The U.S. State of Texas is also becoming an attractive destination for Bicoin miners due to the surplusss availability of wind and solar energy. Speaking to CNBC, Brandon Arvanaghi, previously a security engineer at crypto exchange Gemini said:
“You are going to see a dramatic shift over the next few months. We have governors like Greg Abbott in Texas who are promoting mining. It is going to become a real industry in the United States, which is going to be incredible.”
With Chinese miners unplugging their mining rigs, there’s a significant drop in the Bitcoin hashrate over the last month.
