Mayor Francis Suarez says Miami’s doors are open to bitcoin miners in China. Chinese miners are scrambling to find a new home after Beijing made it clear that their days are numbered. Mayor Suarez plans to attract these homeless bitcoin miners to Miami with low cost and clean nuclear power.
More than half of all miners are currently based in China. A mass exodus is already underway. Saurez told CNBC that he hasn’t personally received any call from Chinese miners.
“We want to make sure that our city has an opportunity to compete. We’re talking to a lot of companies and just telling them. Hey, we want you to be here.” he said.
The miners are location agnostic, all they need is a rig and a good internet connection. Miners care about is finding the cheapest source of power. Suarez has been a crypto believer for years. He took the plunge into investing in bitcoin and Ethereum when the government passed a $1.9 trillion American rescue plan. The reason behind investing is that he “realized that what was inevitable and already happening is inflation.”
He emphasized the town’s Reliance on Nuclear energy as a supply of unpolluted affordable energy.
According to the Data from the Energy Information Administration, the Turkey Point Nuclear Plant helps to power Miami. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an average electricity per kilowatt-hour cost of 10.7 cents in Miami.
In the entire state of Florida, nuclear energy is the second biggest power generator after natural gas. “The fact that we have nuclear power that it’s very inexpensive power,” Suarez told CNBC an interview from the second-floor conference room in Miami City Hall building.
Miami Mayor Plan to Attract Bitcoin Miners
Suarez talks with Florida power and light company to figure out further drive down the price. The Mayor considers a mix of incentives like enterprise zone specifically for crypto mining. But, there are lots of things to happen first. He also told building a mining facility is similar to building a data centre. It’s not something that happens overnight.
“We were one of the first cities in the world to have a data center, and a mining hub is very similar to a data center,” he said.
But Miami 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 bitcoin miners due to the surplus availability of wind and solar energy.
Also Read: Miami’s Mayor Suarez Accepts Bitcoin for Presidential Campaign
