For the last five years, a loud hum has been a continual backdrop to birdsong and the occasional barking dog in the village of Dresden, New York state.
Coming from the nearby Greenidge Generation power plant, which had been mothballed for years before, the sound has angered some local people.
“It’s an annoyance,” says Ellen Campbell, who owns a house on Seneca Lake a short distance away. “If I sit out by the lake, I would rather not hear that.
“We didn’t sign up for the constant hum.”
The issue here in Dresden, a village of about 300 people surrounded by winding country roads, single-track rail lines and farms growing grapes and hops, sounds like a familiar story about the tension between nature-loving locals and economic development.
But their annoyance is also a signal of something less expected – policies of US President Donald Trump meeting resistance from people in the rural areas whose votes drove his return to the White House.
And the cause? Bitcoin mining.
An energy-intensive process that relies on powerful computers to create and protect the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin mining has grown rapidly in the country over recent years. The current administration, unlike Joe Biden’s, is intent on encouraging the industry.
Trump has said he wants to turn the US into the crypto-mining capital of the world, announcing in June 2024 that “we want all the remaining Bitcoin to be made in the USA”. This has implications for rural communities throughout the US – many of whom voted for Trump.
