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When you think about the NBA, images of computer hardware, server racks and hundreds of feet of cabling would probably not be the first thing that jumped into your mind. However, for the Sacramento Kings, Cryptocurrency mining has become a reality, alongside glass backboards, 3-pointers and the shot-clock. Golden 1 Center will now be home to NBA players and Cryptocurrency Miners.

While the Dallas Mavericks have become just the latest in a slew of Professional Sports team to start accepting cryptocurrency for purchases of tickets, the NBA’s Sacramento Kings have become the first professional sports team to venture into cryptocurrency mining. The goal is not to increase revenue for the team, but rather to fund community projects in the Sacramento, California area.

The project, named, MiningForGood will raise funds and then invest in local community development programs. The first community organization to work with MiningForGood will be Build.Black.Coalition, whose mission is to transform Sacramento’s Black communities, as well as invest in them. Build.Black.Coalition was formed after the March 2018 shooting of Stephen Clark by police.

Kings Mining Done at Stadium

The Mining hardware will be housed right at the stadium. The Sacramento Kings have a tier 4 data center on premises. It is a system that mimics the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon data centers and has enough energy to power 17,000 homes, according to Sacramento Kings chief technology officer, Ryan Montoya. The infrastructure that was already in place has allowed for a more streamlined implementation of blockchain technology.

For the mining hardware itself, the Kings have partnered with MiningStore.com, out of Raleigh, North Carolina. The rigs that the kings chose to go with are the Imperium machines, which are built to mine Ethereum. Each machine has a price tag of $7,495. The number of rigs that the Sacramento Kings purchased was not disclosed.

The initial idea for the team to invest in blockchain came from Kings owner and chairman Vivek Ranadive, Montoya said.

“Vivek is always pushing us to use innovation to focus on the fan and customer experience, but also to use innovation to do good,” Montoya said. “He had a vision for us to look into blockchain beyond the business purpose to do good in the community. That’s when we came up with the idea to mine cryptocurrency.”

Being the first, in their respective industry, to jump on new technology is nothing new for the Kings. The Sacrament Kings, as you may recall, were the very first team to start accepting cryptocurrency. What you may not have known is that they are also the first professional sports team to use Twitter, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, as well. Mining cryptocurrency is just another day at the office for this NBA team.

“We think that we’re at the very beginning of where this is going to go,” Montoya said. “The potential is there for this to be really big, and the hope is that this could be something that other organizations could model in the future.”

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