FORT WORTH, Texas — Fort Worth, Texas is on its way to becoming the first city government in the U.S. to mine bitcoin.
City council voted unanimously on a 6-month pilot program this week.
The city will use three bitcoin mining machines, donated by the Texas Blockchain Council.
The machines will work around the clock in a climate-controlled data center at Fort Worth City Hall, according to Axios.
The city will convert the bitcoin into cash, then transfer the money into a city account.
City officials have not said at what point they’ll decide to convert the digital currency into cash.
Bitcoin mining has been criticized for the amount of energy it requires.
A memo from the House Energy and Commerce Committee published in January said the CO2 emissions from mining bitcoin and Ethereum in 2021 was the "equivalent to the tailpipe emissions from more than 15.5 million gasoline powered cars on the road every year."
However, the city of Fort Worth estimates that each of its machines will consume about the same amount of energy as an average vacuum cleaner.
The city plans to evaluate the program after the 6-month trial period.
