A ribbon cutting for a bitcoin mining company located in the Bluestone Business and Technology Park in Tazewell County was held Tuesday morning.
Blackstone Data Services, LLC will provide data center hosting, server and node maintenance, and cryptocurrency mining container consider production for the benefit of a tri-state area.
An estimated private capital investment of $18 million will initially create five new jobs.
The business will be the first to locate in the shell building in the park, and two large external data center servers have already been installed for the company.
Jonathan Belcher, executive director of the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA), said the cryptocurrency mining operation is the first of its kind in Southwest Virginia and Southwest Virginia.
“Our mission is to provide expert turnkey data hosting and technology services so our clients can invest in new technology without the hassle of self-hosting,” said Seth White, Blackstone CEO. “Our vision is to provide a portfolio of data hosting and technology services that allow investors to easily access advanced cryptocurrency technologies and deploy these as investment vehicles.”
U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-9th District, attended the event and said the company locating in the park is a “significant development for Tazewell County.”
“Data centers and cryptocurrency offer new economic opportunities for Southwest Virginia, and Blackstone’s decision will help realize that potential while bringing jobs and investment to our region,” he said.
“What Seth and his partners are doing shows that here in Southwest Virginia we are looking to the future,” said state Sen. Travis Hackworth, R-Tazewell County. “This is a bold move for our region, and I applaud the business, Tazewell County and VCEDA for diversify our economy. This is the kind of entrepreneurship that makes us strong.”
“We are excited to welcome Blackstone Data Services to Bluestone Technology Park,” said Charlie Stacy, East District Supervisor. “They will bring much-needed high technology, diversified job opportunities to Tazewell County and significant capital investment.”
Blackstone will primarily offer complete data center hosting services to its customers who wish to purchase and distribute cryptocurrency, nodes or other hosted server technologies.
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that does not depend on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to maintain and maintain it. It is a decentralized system for verifying that the parties to a transaction have the money they claim to have using blockchain computing technology and data analysis of transactions.
White said blockchains cannot be hacked.
