Cryptocurrency miners line up to come to Texas, and rural counties are welcoming them

Employees service a computer on Sept. 15 at Helios, a 125,000-square-foot Argo Blockchain facility in Dickens County. (Credit: Trace Thomas for The Texas Tribune)

Jacob Rodriguez was driving a John Deere tractor in a West Texas cotton field when he received a phone call that would change his life.

“I was pulling a 59-foot air seeder … and at the same time I was on the phone having my interview,” Rodriguez, 29, said.