A bit, mainly

Cryptocurrency “mining” is set to begin as soon as this weekend in the former Alcoa potrooms, almost exactly one year after Bitmain confirmed it was coming to Rockdale.

In July, 2018, Bitmain corporate officials forecast they would bring 400 jobs to the area. We say corporate officials, because the local Bitmain folks on the ground here never used numbers like that.

Repeat, never. They have been very cooperative with The Reporter. Bitmain’s corporate public relations department, on the other hand, appears to hardly exist.

It’s been known for quite some time, and reported by this newspaper since Jan. 17, that the eventual total is going to be more like 50 jobs, although several more could be added later.

The question now is what to make of the situation. Do we focus on what we thought it was going to be or what it actually is?

To put it in simple terms—and anything regarding cryptocurrency needs to be put in simple terms—is a one-eighth full glass to be compared to a full glass or an empty one?

We can, of course, choose either way. Others are already choosing for us. An article in Wired magazine, for instance, proclaimed Rockdale “bet on Bitmain and lost.” How “Rockdale” bet as a big Chinese company made a deal with a big American company was not explained.

The article was illustrated with photos, some of which looked like they were taken by your Cousin Elmer at last year’s family picnic.

One represents “downtown Rockdale” with a snapshot of long-vacant buildings on the corner of the Main-Bell intersection. (In that block—the 200 block of North Main—there are currently nine open and operating businesses.)

Apparently the story’s point, where Rockdale is concerned, is that 50 jobs isn’t another Alcoa/ Luminant. That’s true. Neither is 400.

Here’s what Bitmain has working against it: Hardly anyone really understands what cryptocurrency mining actually is. (We are raising our hands on that too.) It’s not like Alcoa. We all watched their Rockdale-produced aluminum “pigs” rolling down the highway and knew they were something tangible.

Here’s what Bitmain has working for it: It’s actually here. See story, page 1A.

Rockdale residents can be forgiven for being skeptical about new businesses. In the past few years it looked like we were getting a plastics manufacturing facility and a Styrofoam cleaning plant. Neither of those happened.

Bitmain, on the other hand, actually did what it set out to do, installed its equipment, and it was a much bigger job than either of those two non-starters would have had to tackle. It re-purposed some massive 1950s technology with some massive 21st-Century technology.

And, yes, 50 jobs is 50 jobs. Just for reference, the plastics facility was promising 50 jobs “in 10 years” and the Styrofoam cleaning facility was to open—which it never did—with 30 jobs.

So what are we left with, bottom line?

Some jobs we didn’t have before. Sure, 50 isn’t

400. It’s not nothing either.—M.B.