JACKSON COUNTY — Tan pump jacks, 140-year-old oil field technology, bob up and down amid the purple sage in this rural corner of Colorado, lifting oil from deep below and also fueling a very 21st century frenzy: cryptocurrency mining.
The pump jack wells are tied to natural gas generators powering trailers filled with bitcoin mining computers, linking this remote valley to the global cryptocurrency market.
The marriage of old oil and gas and trendy cryptocurrency is one of convenience. Drillers focused on producing oil have to find something to do with the natural gas that also comes out of the well. Crypto miners are always looking for cheap electricity to power their energy-hungry computers.
A single bitcoin transaction consumes 1,449 kilowatt-hours — 50 days worth of power for the average U.S. household, according to the Digiconomist Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index.
In areas with a lot of oil production and few pipelines — such as Texas’ Permian Basin and North Dakota’s Bakken —...
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