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It's a mistake to assume energy source composition too. I would guess that a majority of mining is renewable right now (mining is a perfect sink of intermittent
by spiorf 6y ago
It's a mistake to assume energy source composition too. I would guess that a majority of mining is renewable right now (mining is a perfect sink of intermittent excess energy, and because its profitability is related to energy cost, renewables win). More so in the future.
- eloff 6y agoThe capital expenditure is sufficient that it still makes sense to run the miners 24/7 and not try to take advantage of cheap electricity - although that does matter somewhat when deciding where to place the data center. This is true of pretty much every industrial process. The idea of running production only when the sun is shining to absorb excess solar seems like a universally poor idea.
- spiorf 6y agoRarely industrial process can switch on and off randomly and still scale revenue linearly. The capital expenditure argument makes sense when mining is the primary business. Using old and otherwise unprofitable (but cheap) hardware makes sense where there is intermittent excess energy.
- imtringued 6y agoHaving cheap energy 50% of the time is still better than 0% of the time.
- eloff 6y agoOf course, that goes without saying.