There's a mysterious gigantic bitcoin mine warehouse just a 15 minute drive from my home. A few weeks ago I started asking questions about it, to see what anyone knew. And I got two responses. 1) "who cares" or 2) " I cant tell you, its a secret".
I looked online for articles and there weren't many. The main stories talk about how the State of Montana gave funding to the mining operation, billed as "the largest data center in the world" in some places and "the largest data center on this continent" in others. All the articles say that the State of Montana gave them like $400,000 to create the data center was because it would create a bunch of jobs. These folks on this Reddit thread thought that was pretty weird, and so did I. Did my state officials understand that " security validation services for Bitcoin networks " means mining?? It kind of seemed like they didn't. And how could watching a data center create 80 jobs anyway? I wanted to know more.
I emailed the governor! I emailed the grant agency! And then I drove over there!
I figure any time I have a big inquiry like this, just try going right to the source. So I emailed the governor. I said, "As a voter I am interested to know more about the $418k that was given to this operation in hopes that it would create 80 jobs. As far as I know, such an operation would not likely create that number of jobs. I am hoping your office can help explain or give an update, to clarify the rationalle regarding this funding."
Since this is a small state, the governer's office actually wrote back to me within the day. They said that the grant had not been paid out like the news articles say. But that basically they couldnt get into details with me, because the rest was confidential. That was interesting to learn. Why did the paper report that the operation had been funded. I tried asking some people I know who work in tech and they were like "oh yeah I totally know some things but I cant tell you because its a conflict of interest." I was like WTF, right? Why so secret?
Dflo on location
So one day I drove out there to see for myself. I brought this weird old crappy video camera because I also wanted to test it out for future vlogging. The camera sucks so I am not going to use it again , lol. But here is a little clip of me going out there . It was a pretty day, and I had fun and that's what matters. Plus the camera created some weird effects and if you watch till the end I added some weird editing effects in my 10 year old computer program to make it even weirder. :) When you see the building, listen for the humming sound of the data center. It can be heard from down the road.
I pestered people at a birthday party...
A couple weeks after that, I went to my friend's birthday party. I posted about the amazing cake on Steepshot. It turned out that someone at the party works for the granting agency that supposedly gave the money to the bitcoin mine. So I asked her about it. I told her how I am blogging now and wanted to write about it. Basically, she said, the grant has not happened yet because the jobs have not been created, and so there wasn't a justification for the state economic development funding. But also, she told me, the mining operation doesn't want any media attention because they don't want the competition to find out they are here.
"Oh," I thought. "Maybe I wont write a Steemit post about this because I don't want to attract negative attention from a bitcoin mine. " I was still fascinated with the story, but it didn't seem worth causing a problem over. Like I said, my local community is super small.
But then a huge story on it came out!
I was minding my own business one day when all of a sudden I saw THIS ARTICLE in our local weekly paper! I was like "WHAT".
So the whole time I was asking questions some reporter was doing a massive piece on it! And its great writing, like a really good article with great photos too, and you should read it! The article is really long and detailed. So I am not worried about offending the company any more by blasting their story here on Steemit, ha! :)
Trust your instincts!
I can't tell you how many times I have gotten obsessed with some weird random thing that no one seems to care about only to see it blow up a little while later. I like to share, and collaborate, and engage with others so if my interests bore them or annoy the people around me or whatever, I lose interest too, sometimes.
But I think its important to remember that there are more people in the world than those immediately around us, so that if you find something interesting, sometimes you have to go looking for the other people who care about it, too. My friends dont seem to care about this stuff, but you guys do! Thank god for the internet is all I have to say.
Its a good reminder to follow your interests, and ask questions, and don't get deterred. That's easier said than done, and I struggle with it all the time, but its just true. I have found that community here at Steemit, and I hope that you all do, too.
Keep Steeming,
xo,
