Texas Blockchain Council President Lee Bratcher said that a winter storm that hit the US state of Texas left more than 250,000 residents without power.. As a result, this caused an increase in electricity prices.. Therefore, local miners had to turn off their bitcoin mining devices in order to reduce the load on the power grid.. Last year, they took similar measures during a snow storm and during a heat wave in the summer.
In addition to skyrocketing electricity costs, some mining farms have reported device damage as their rigs were not adapted to harsh weather conditions.. Can Zhao, chief marketing officer of JDK Capital, which owns a 20 MW data center near Dallas, said devices had to be reduced by about six hours since Monday.. As a result, JDK Capital's computing power has been reduced by 25%, but this will not affect the company's long-term prospects, Zhao assured.
Last year, the American mining company Riot Blockchain began moving ASIC miners from New York to Texas in order to reduce costs and not overpay for electricity.. Riot Blockchain has yet to comment on how the ice storm impacted its operations.