A Minnesota company that specializes in mining crpyto-currency said it plans to expand its campus in Kearney. Compute North will provide service for customers who are interested in Bitcoin and other crypto-currency. CEO Dave Perrill said the expansion will increase their ability to mine the digital currency using high-powered computers and create more jobs for the local community in Kearney.
"They had the infrastructure already in place in terms of the energy and all the electrical infrastructure in order for us to scale," he said. "And then they have the University of Nebraska at Kearney, which brings an educated and high quality workforce that also helps us to run a really great operation."
Perrill said Compute North partnered with the Nebraska Public Power District to allow their campus to shut down first in the event of a power crisis like Nebraska saw last week so the grid can stabilize and avoid emergencies like in Texas.
"Obviously, we're a big, you know, energy user, we generate a lot taxes, but we also just want to continue to be a good citizen," he said. "The way that we look at our computing and our computing load, is that we should be the first ones to be interrupted, and we can be the first ones to take down."
Crypto-currency mining requires massive computer power and in essence finds so-called “tokens” by solving complicated math problems. Construction on the expansion has already started and the first customers are expected to be online in March.