Almost all of Texas’ industrial-scale Bitcoin miners have come to a halt as the state tries to stave off power blackouts amid an intense heatwave, Bloomberg reported on Monday. Bitcoin miners, including Riot, Argo, and Core Scientific, have shut down millions of computers in response to the heatwave that is expected to cause blackouts. Those Bitcoin miners were lured to Texas by lower energy bills. Some have estimated that as much as 9% of the world’s cryptocurrency computing power is located in Texas, with America’s largest bitcoin mining operation located in the small town of Rockdale, Texas. Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive job. According to Columbia, the industry consumes 150 terawatt-hours of electricity every year—this is more than what the entire country of Argentina, a population of 45 million, consumes. This much energy emits 65 megatons of carbon dioxide every year into the atmosphere. Earning bitcoin is achieved by […]