Rockdale Municipal Development District recently confirmed that Bitmain Technologies will bring 400 full time jobs to Milam County.

The company will invest more than $5 million to build a new data center in Rockdale.

Bitmain Technologies is working with Alcoa to re-purpose its former aluminum plant to turn it into the center.

Juan Galay, a cryptocurrency researcher at Texas A&M, joined us on First News at Four to talk about how cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin work, and what kind of jobs the new data center will need.

The Milam County Industrial Development Corporation and the Milam County Commissioners Court approved an economic development incentive that includes a Tax Abatement that will be phased in over ten-years.

"A deal like Bitmain is a game changer for Milam County. While a "clean" industry, it will diversify the labor supply, significantly increase exposure to technology, increase by half the tax base of Milam County and more than double the tax base of Rockdale ISD, " said Richard E. Williams, President of the Milam County Municipal Development District.

"The 400 new jobs in addition to an estimated 137 spin-off jobs could make a major dent in Milam County's relatively high unemployment rate, while salaries and benefits are above average for Central Texas," said Williams.

"This is an exciting time for Milam County. We are looking forward to welcoming our newest employer to our business community," said Milam County Judge Dave Barkemeyer