US oil producers are turning to an unexpected source to help solve the environmental problem of excess natural gas — cryptocurrency miners. On remote well pads dotted across the Bakken shale play of North Dakota and Montana, shipping container-sized data centers packed with computers power energy-intensive operations of Bitcoin miners. Their computers, running around the clock to earn crypto tokens by authenticating digital transactions, are powered by natural gas-fired generators, running on gas from the oil wells that would otherwise be flared on site. Mining for virtual currencies has attracted widespread ... (full story)