The former Pine Bluff Commercial building, according to company executives, is being converted into a cryptocurrency mining facility. converting from an older to a more modern process. The project could bring in $10 million to $15 million in investment and employ 75 people, according to company officials.
As of right now, Joe Delmendo, owner of El Segundo, Calif.-based firm Commonwealth Real Estate, says the facility has been largely unoccupied since September 2020 and is currently being cleaned out and brought up to code.
Because of the infrastructural work that needs to be completed before he can begin mining in Pine Bluff, Delmendo says he hasn’t made his business venture in the city public. To start things moving, Delmendo stated, “I realise there is a lot that has to be done in the building”.
Nodes (computers) are used to validate bitcoin transactions by solving computational tasks on the blockchain. A small quantity of cryptocoin is awarded to node operators in exchange for their troubleshooting efforts, which in turn essentially confirms the transaction’s authenticity. One of the reasons the company became interested in the Pine Bluff property was because of the enormous amount of computing power required to verify the transactions.
Austin Joyner, the company’s director of public relations and business development, said he discovered the old newspaper building was up for auction in August or September after finding a for-sale listing for it online. A megawatt of electrical power is required to run the press in Joyner’s facility, so he decided to look into bitcoin mining.
As a result of the high electrical output, “we immediately thought that this was a great fit,” Joyner said. There were advantages to the building’s air system, including the ability to manage the temperature of the printing press.
It’s estimated that Joyner’s company has invested around $1.5 million so far, including the purchase price for the building. He predicted that mining will commence in 60 to 90 days, depending on how rapidly the structures are upgraded. After one year of construction, between 30 and 75 people could be employed at the site. They would be paid between $30,000 and $50,000, depending on their level of expertise, and between $50,000 and $80,000 for those with more advanced skills.
