Granbury may not be a city you are familiar with. Located in Hood County, Texas, Granbury spans a mere 16.97 square miles and has a population of only 10,958. Despite its relatively tiny stature, Granbury is locked in a dispute with a large-scale Bitcoin mining farm, which it claims is causing serious health issues for many residents.
About a 15-minute drive from Granbury’s quaint town center is Wolf Hollow II, a gas plant owned and operated by Constellation Energy. Despite running continually and generating up to 1,231 megawatts of electricity, Wolf Hollow II did not cause any issues for Granbury’s residents until 2021, when Constellation Energy signed a deal to power a new Bitcoin mining facility.
A Company With Over 17,500 Bitcoin
Marathon Digital Holdings built a new facility with 163 metal boxes resembling shipping containers. Those boxes house over 30,000 powerful computers whose sole purpose is to mine Bitcoin. The mining operation is hugely successful. Where most Bitcoin adopters hold a fraction of a Bitcoin, which they are either waiting to appreciate or use to play at Bitcoin sportsbooks online, it is reported Marathon Digital Holdings has a portfolio containing over 17,500 of the world’s most popular and valuable cryptocurrencies.
Mining cryptocurrency results in enormous electricity consumption, with high-powered computers running around the clock performing complex mathematical equations known as proof-of-service. Anyone who uses a gaming PC can attest to them running hot and producing heat, so imagine the heat 30,000 computers generate while baking in the Texan heat.
That heat has to be dissipated; otherwise, the computer’s internal sensors reduce or throttle the power going to its components, drastically slowing it down. A slow computer is no good for Bitcoin mining. Traditionally, miners use powerful fans to blow the heat away, which is the case at the Granbury Bitcoin farm. However, it is evident that such methods generate a lot of noise, and the constant drone and hum of the cooling fans that Granbury residents claim is causing health issues.
Noise Akin to a Chainsaw
There are 137 Bitcoin mines in the United States, most located in Texas. Most data centers in the USA are located away from towns and cities, but Marathon Digital Holdings’ operation is within a stone’s throw from where residents live, many in trailers due to the city’s low-income residents.
As the Granbury facility expanded, the noise increased. According to TIME Magazine, residents claim the noise started as a low hum, not unlike a ceiling fan. However, as more computer-housing boxes were installed, the noise intensified to levels some claim is akin to a jet engine running 24/7.
While a jet engine may be a slight over-exaggeration, measurements of 90 decibels are common in the surrounding neighborhood, the equivalent of a chainsaw or a hair dryer continuously running. America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that exposure to sounds at this level for more than two hours can cause permanent eardrum damage.
It is also three times louder than the recommended 30 decibels of background noise humans need to enjoy a proper night’s sleep. A lack of quality sleep is considered to be causing the Granbury residents’ health problems.
Reported issues include vertigo, ear infections, depression, high blood pressure, and heart palpitations. A lack of sleep increases cortisol and sugar levels in the blood; cortisol is commonly referred to as the stress hormone. Cortisol is necessary for day-to-day function, but prolonged elevated levels can seriously affect human health.
Fines Are a Drop in the Ocean
Texas state penal code deems any noise over 85 decibels unreasonable and grants authorities the power to issue fines to offenders. However, those fines are capped at $500, and officers do not have the power to increase the fines. A $500 fine is a drop in the ocean when mining a single Bitcoin yields $59,000 at the time of writing. For context, Marathon Digital Holdings reported $165.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2024, an increase from $51.1 million for the same period of 2023.
Marathon Digital Holdings Promises to Lower Noise
Most noise data centers produce stems from the vast network of cooling fans. One only has to enter a small business’s server room to experience a wall of noise from the cooling fans. Fixes do exist, including swapping traditional fans for liquid-based cooling solutions. However, immersion cooling technology is expensive and untested on an industrial scale.
Marathon Digital Holdings claims it is replacing the cooling fans at its Granbury mine with immersion cooling.
“By the end of 2024, we intend to replace the majority of air-cooled containers with immersion cooling, with no expansion required. Initial sound readings on immersion containers indicate favorable results in sound reduction and compliance with all relevant state noise ordinances.”
Who Is Marathon Digital Holdings?
Marathon Digital Holdings is an American digital asset technology company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Previously, the company was known as Marathon Patent Group but changed its name on March 1, 2021. Under its Marathon Patent Group name, the company was a patent holding company that was the parent company of Uniloc. Uniloc is allegedly a patent troll company involved in several high-profile patent disputes, including winning $388 million in damages from Microsoft in 2003.
A report issued in February 2023, when Marathon Digital Holdings sold 1,500 mined Bitcoins, showed the company had an operating hashrate of 11 exahash per second. At the time, the entire Bitcoin network’s hashrate was approximately 282 exahash per second, implying Marathon Digital Holdings had about 4% of the global computing power.
Fred Thiel is the current CEO of Marathon Digitial Holdings. Formerly the CEO of GameSpy and the current CEO of Thiel Advisors, Thiel joined the board of directors at Marathon Patent Group in April 2018 before being promoted to CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings in April 2021.
According to Salary.com, Thiel received over $36 million in compensation in 2023. This vast sum includes an $800,000 salary, a $1.8 million bonus, and $33.5 million in stock options.
