Bitcoin mining rig 2013
A veritable mine in Washington state is pumping out an estimated $8 million in Bitcoins per month.
Local TV news station KOMO News was given a peek at what the people behind it are calling "the largest mine in North America and most of the rest of the world." Built across two warehouses, the racks of constantly running mining rigs combine to provide a petahash of processing power, at the expense of 1.4 megawatts of electricity, devoted to solving the increasingly complex algorithm that generates Bitcoins. The result is monthly earnings of $8 million in Bitcoin per month, according to the report.
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Although the location of the warehouse was kept private, it was key to maximizing profits for the mining rig. The area where the facility was built was chosen for its access to cheap and reliable electricity, according to the report.
Being a local TV news story, the report is a bit sparse on the details, such as what kinds of mining rigs the operation uses, and how expensive each one is. The International Business Times pointed out that a Neptune mining rig, which produces about 2.1 Bitcoins per day, costs $13, 000 each. It'd be interesting to see what kind of wholesale agreement this kind of operation could get.
The project is just one example of what can only be called a gold rush for Bitcoin. Even now, in relatively difficult times for the Bitcoin community, one Bitcoin is worth about $625, according to Preev.com's Bitcoin converter. Those who missed the investment opportunity when Bitcoin was cheap a few years ago might deem the hardware necessary for large-scale Bitcoin mining a worthy investment.
