Various sources have reported that officials of the United States Douglas county desire to establish a blockchain innovation campus. County’s Commerce Department is willing to invest fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the establishment of such an innovation campus.
The residents have access to very high computing power that can be utilized for the purpose. Moreover, as the county enjoys cheap electrical power, it would be a fit for such a technology to be developed here. Statistics showed that many miners who were attracted by the cheap electricity that the county enjoyed were residing there already. Despite that, there was a significant decrease in the number of miners in late 2018, especially after the market’s crash. However, recent reports have shown that such a community using blockchain will not be vulnerable to such volatilities.
Such feedback is not reflected by other counties in Washington, and in fact, the Chelan County has proposed to introduce a new billing method that would charge miners extra. Not only that but in mid-2018 the county officials implied a temporary ban on mining after unauthorized mining was detected.
Other counties either halted all development projects or introduced a sharp rise in electricity prices with the exception of Douglas County. Bitmain has opened a facility in Douglass County for mining purposes and the expected electricity usage is said to be 12 MW which is enough to power up at least 2500 houses.
Moreover, the county owns facilities that were previously held by blockchain firm GigaWatt. Reportedly the county wants to use those facilities to develop advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence.
