How beautiful Ocean Falls fell for bitcoin

[Bloomberg] [Fully Charged]( From [Bloomberg](   [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]( [Twitter Share]( [SUBSCRIBE [Subscribe]](  Hey everyone it’s Josh. This is our first newsletter after Labor Day, so I’m going to play, “here’s what I did on summer vacation.” In mid-July, I traveled from New York to Ocean Falls, a tiny town in British Columbia whose economy used to be centered on a paper mill.  Now it's basically a ghost town. Getting to Ocean Falls is complicated because there’s no road. From Vancouver you have to first take a plane, then a boat. The point of my trip was to get a sense of how Ocean Falls has been changed by its newest resident: the guy running the local Bitcoin mine. Ocean Falls is the subject of this week’s [Decrypted podcast](, the first episode in our [new season](, where we’re exploring the unintended consequences of technology. I also wrote [an article]( about the town, which is worth clicking on just to see how spectacularly beautiful the place is. It’s the story of the Bitcoin miner who did eventually succeed. His name is Kevin Day, and he’s a businessman from Vancouver whose previous business consisted of selling ring tones. Day was able to get his project off the ground by befriending the guy in charge of the private power utility that owns the dam at Ocean Falls, a backwoods type named Brent Case who enjoys a good deal of local notoriety, not least because he survived a gruesome grizzly bear attack a few years back. This would be a great tale on its own. But it also raises a handful of questions with wider relevance. Bitcoin miners have been on a global quest for cheap electricity and cool weather. They’ve set up in places from Iceland to central Washington State. But if a town is good for Bitcoin mining, does that mean Bitcoin mining is good for the town? Data centers don’t offer much employment, or attract other businesses to the area, and many places may not even want another power-hungry industry. These dynamics aren’t unique to Bitcoin mining. Data centers of all types aren't great drivers of economic development. But the Bitcoin variety comes with its own issues. When Day first contacted the people at Ocean Falls, Bitcoin was worth about $400. By last December it was worth nearly $20,000. Then it crashed. It’s gotten so bad that some Bitcoin miners are wondering whether the data centers they’ve built might be more profitable if [put to other uses](. Now that Day’s business is up and running, there are questions about how long it can actually stick around. I explored these issues with Day, Kevin, and many of the 100 or so people who live in Ocean Falls. They were split on the economic potential of Day’s project. But even for the skeptics, Day’s quixotic project has brought a much-needed ingredient to a town where not much as happened for the decades: hope.  And here’s what you need to know in global technology news: President Donald Trump's massive tax cuts for corporations have mostly helped tech giants -- and made it [more expensive]( for other companies to borrow money.  Intel is missing a CEO and recently delayed a key production technology. But [all is not lost](bbg://news/stories/NSN%20PEBOUF6KLVRA), according to the head of the chipmaker's most-successful business.  China is [trying to stop]( its citizens wasting their lives playing video games.  President Trump said Google, Facebook and Amazon may be "[a very antitrust situation](."  Join the smartest minds in tech and investing at Bloomberg’s Sooner Than You Think, a special event on October 16 at the William Vale in New York City. Learn how artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and blockchain are reshaping how we spend, save and invest. [Register now with code BBGNEWS](.   Sponsored Content by Morgan Stanley The next crop of tech stocks to dominate the market will likely serve businesses, not consumers. The new leaders will likely be companies that reduce the cost of production, rather than the cost of consumption, through industrial automation, robotics, AI or blockchain technology. [Read more.](   You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Technology newsletter Fully Charged. You can tell your friends to [sign up here](.  [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022