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> Mining Bitcoins is a global effort, so even if mining is banned somewhere, the total amount of Bitcoins does not change, and so the global price will not fluc
by chenster 9y ago
> Mining Bitcoins is a global effort, so even if mining is banned somewhere, the total amount of Bitcoins does not change, and so the global price will not fluctuate, an industry insider said.
This is not true. Bitcoin price swings like crazy.
- dantillberg 9y agoMaybe they mean to say that the amount of new bitcoin mined will not fluctuate? It's true that the amount of new supply per day is roughly constant -- even if half of the miners go offline, just as much new bitcoin is produced per day.
- MichaelGG 9y agoReally? I thought the difficulty took several days to adjust. Edit: The wiki says it takes 2160 blocks, about two weeks?
- sanswork 9y agoIt does. If half the miners went offline right after an adjustment half as much bitcoin would be mined everyday and the next adjustment would be a month away instead of 2 weeks. The number of available transactions for the month would drop by half as well.
- deftnerd 9y agoThe majority of Bitcoin mining is located in just a few geographic regions that happen to have inexpensive power. China, The Republic of Georgia (special backroom deal with the president and BitFury), North-East Canada, and parts of North-West US that have cheap hydro power. If China is really rooting out the bitcoin mining operations, it represents a huge change in the makeup of the mining/hashing industry
- bernardlunn 9y agoWhy does China have low cost power? I understand the others you mention, but is it from subsidies in China?
- c3833174 9y agoPartly because of the government building hydro plants in suitable places even if there's little to no demand.