From the outside, 5295 Brook Hollow Parkway in Norcross, Georgia, is like many of the flex office buildings that dot the Atlanta suburbs: The single-story brick building sits in the center of a sprawling parking lot, surrounded by pine trees. But this nondescript piece of real estate raised eyebrows last summer when Las Vegas-based Cleanspark purchased it to turn it into a Bitcoin mining operation, the second such facility the company operates in Atlanta. Why Cleanspark chose this innocuous building is simple: It is big enough to house 6,000 of its high-powered computers, which guzzle power 24 hours a day, seven days a week to do nothing but mint new Bitcoin, the most valuable and popular cryptocurrency; and, being in Georgia, it has access to some of the cheapest energy in the country. 
Companies that seek to mint cryptocurrency amid a rush to invest in the digital investment require critical physical infrastructure, and they are largely looking to locate it in places that offer two things: low-cost power and local and state governments willing to offer tax incentives. That combination has led to data centers with…  Read the full story here. | 
