Core Scientific, a carbon-neutral blockchain hosting company, is set to open a new 300-megawatt data center in Denton. The announcement was made on Thursday after agreements were settled with the City of Denton and Tenaska, a private energy company that will provide Core Scientific with voltage interconnection and transformation equipment. Tenaska will also act as an energy advisor for the new center.
Core Scientific is one of the largest blockchain infrastructure providers in the U.S. with data centers already operating in Georgia, Kentucky and North California. Another facility in North Dakota is currently under construction. Although the company doesn’t have a proprietary coin, it does provide hosting for other companies needing blockchain management such as Bitmain, Innosilicon, Nvidia and Obelisk, among others. Core Scientific also uses its array of powerful equipment to mine coins like Bitcoin and Etherium.
“Denton represents our first blockchain data center in Texas and gives us another opportunity to demonstrate our team’s ability to scale rapidly to meet the increasing demand for secure blockchain infrastructure hosting services and digital asset mining,” Mike Levitt, Core Scientific CEO, said in a statement. “We believe that blockchain technology will play an increasingly important role in global commerce and serve as an important driver of emission-free energy demand.”
Blockchains work by storing large amounts of data in easy-to-understand blocks for computers. Relating to cryptocurrencies, blockchain data is stored across thousands of computers in the same network for security and also transparency. When buying or selling cryptocurrency on a blockchain, the transaction is given a timestamp, and computers hosting the currency have to solve complicated equations for the transaction to be confirmed as legitimate.
The amount of data storage and power required to process thousands of transactions a day makes cryptocurrencies reliant on large data centers, like the ones operated by Core Scientific, rather than on a small network of computers.
Currently, more than 50 percent of Core Scientific’s electricity comes from carbon-free sources. The new Denton center, once operational, will be 100 percent net carbon-neutral through the purchase of energy credits, according to a news release.
“The company’s commitment to 100 percent net carbon-neutral operations aligns well with the goals of the Denton Renewable Resource Plan and the long-term interests of our citizens. The economic benefits of this project to our community will be realized for many years to come and we look forward to working with Core Scientific as part of this rapidly-growing industry,” Denton Mayor Gerard Hudspeth said in a statement.
Texas is becoming an ideal destination for miners and hosting companies like Core Scientific due to having some of the lowest electricity prices in the county. With mining being a time and energy-intensive process, potential miners seek out low prices on electricity to increase returns on their operations.
There is no set date for when the Denton center will be operational, but Core Scientific lists nearly a dozen open positions on its website for jobs in Dallas and Austin. The company recently went public through a SPAC in August with a valuation of $4.3 billion.
