Washington’s Douglas County Finds a Way to Leverage Crypto Businesses

By Swati Kishore

While many crypto businesses in the State of Washington are scaling down and some others are going out of business amidst the ongoing crypto market slump, the region’s Douglas County is bucking the trend. The county has revealed plans to develop a campus that focuses on innovation in the field of Blockchain Technology.

The County of Douglas has decided to leverage the resources developed during the cryptocurrency boom in 2017.

During Bitcoin’s dominance in the crypto markets, the State of Washington attracted a lot of crypto businesses. The cool climate of the region also brought in a lot of crypto mining firms to the region who were in search of inexpensive hydroelectricity.

However, unfortunately, the bear trend which dominated the year 2018, left many crypto organisations in debt. And with some counties in the Washington region raising the cost of electricity, many mining firms were left feeling the heat. Consequently, many firms went out of business.

In the scheme of things, the County of Douglas decided to take a totally different approach by announcing plans to build a Blockchain innovation campus. Interestingly, Douglas County’s Department of Commerce has agreed to provide funds approximating USD 50,000 to start the development of the campus.

The strategic development of the Blockchain innovation campus will benefit the Douglas County immensely as crypto firms that were put out of business by the neighbouring counties of Grant and Chelan will all be making a queue to base their operations in the County of Douglas.

The Executive Director of the Port of Douglas County detailed on the developments saying,

“There is more to the cryptocurrency story than the boom and the bust. We have some unique assets that make our region appealing… Let’s figure out a way to capitalize on it.”

The county’s efforts are not in vain as the City of East Wenatchee is going to home Bitmain’s mining project which is worth at least USD 20 million. Reportedly, the county is also making efforts to bring Giga Watt back into the business. On January 15, 2019, we had reported how Giga Watt officially shut its business after going bankrupt last year.

Swati Kishore

Swati has a keen interest in emerging technologies and she loves to write about them. She loves trance and is also interested in the philosophy of life.

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