Rockdale Mayor Ward Roddam tells in a letter how bitcoin revitalized his city.
“We are on the threshold of a new economic renaissance,” said the mayor.
Rockdale, a small town in the U.S. state of Texas, faced a serious economic disaster in 2008. It happened when the Alcoa aluminum plant, which had been the town’s largest employer, closed its doors due to rising costs. of energy and the implementation of new regulations.
Since 1952 this extensive industrial complex had been the economic hub of the town. When it closed, more than 1,700 jobs disappeared and thousands of families were forced to leave. It seemed like Rockdale had hit rock bottom.
But now, not far from the site of the Alcoa plant, a farm for mining Bitcoin (BTC) is doing Let Rockdale come back to life.
There, rows of equipment of BTC miners are arranged on shelves more than 5 meters high in a space with a length equivalent to three football fields, generating something that the town had not experienced for years: new economic activity.
So Roddam expressed it in an opinion article which he wrote for a local newspaper, where – without hesitation – he praised the role that digital currency has been playing in the recovery of the decayed town.
Thank you Bitcoin! Roddam expressed in his writing, while narrating the changes Rockdale has experienced since 2020at which time the company Whinstone, a subsidiary of mining giant Riot Blockchain, Inc., began building cryptocurrency mining facilities.
As the mayor acknowledges, the city is “on the threshold of a new renaissance.” That’s because hundreds of people have been employed in mid-skill positions, giving residents the opportunity to make money without leaving Rockdale.
Regarding this, Whinstone CEO Chad Harris explains that the Rockdale mine is the largest in North America. «We came here and built these facilities when BTC was worth between three thousand to four thousand dollars. “We were on this path before it became super popular,” Harris said.
Bitcoin mining companies that have set up shop on the farm They have invested more than a billion dollars in the small citybecoming the county’s largest taxpayers. Your contribution is essential to fund the activities of the local school district and other public services.
As the mayor tells it, after seeing these results he allayed his doubts about bitcoin.
At first, I wasn’t sure about these “miners.” Were they here to stay? Was bitcoin real? Like many Texans today, I have quite a few doubts. But after years working closely with those in the industry, I saw the benefits firsthand.
Ward Roddam, mayor of Rockdale.
Roddam’s statements are made in a context in which questions have been raised about the farms installed in several cities in Texas. Although the industry has generated more than 22,000 jobs in that state alone, some residents and authorities maintain that Bitcoin miners they do not generate advantages that justify their energy consumptionas reported by CriptoNoticias.
Mayor Roddam disagrees with this statement and points to the Rockdale case as evidence. “My experience as mayor contradicts that.” For this reason, he thinks that Texan leaders will end up recognizing the benefits of Bitcoin, “which is like a digital oil well about to boost the economic reactivation of rural areas of Texas.”
