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I know nothing about who benefits from Bitcoin or where is it being mined, but isn't it plausible that group A is benefiting from asset X, while group B is mini
by yoavm 6y ago
I know nothing about who benefits from Bitcoin or where is it being mined, but isn't it plausible that group A is benefiting from asset X, while group B is mining it?
If I'm not mistaken, that was the case with mining since pretty much forever...
- inglor_cz 6y agoOh, yes, but in this case, probably for the first time in history, group B (miners) consists of computers, not people. Owners of said computers are part of group A, and they are unlikely to sell freshly mined Bitcoin under market value. It is probably impossible to map ethno-religious structure of Bitcoin trade exactly, given that it often serves to circumvent regulations and thus necessarily partly lives in the shadows. But a lot of Bitcoin-related activity happens in East Asia, so the participants aren't probably majority white.
- caf 6y agoThe economics of the situation seem to point towards the owners of the mining operations making a fairly slim margin. The amount of electricity required to mine must rise until the mining input costs are close to the current Bitcoin price, because for as long as there are outsized returns from mining Bitcoin, more mining businesses will get into it and cause the difficulty to rise.
- inglor_cz 6y agoYes, but their margin is kinda-sorta certain, while speculants who buy the product run risk of sudden price collapse. No one will bail out Bitcoin speculants if it happens, they are no government's buddies. In other words, it is another globalized and pretty efficient market, but without outright slavery or serfdom on the chain beginning. Compared to guano mines or Potosi mines or even today's cobalt mines in Congo, the first humans in the chain are not miserable.
- yoavm 6y agoThat might be true, but the statement from the article still stands. Those who mine bitcoins (using their computers) are probably not those getting rich of it.
- caf 6y agoAre not those mining the coal that's burnt for the electricity to power the Bitcoin mining operations the first humans in the chain?
- simonh 6y agoIn the latest industrial disaster, 6 Chinese Bitcoin miners were trapped by a cave-in when their data centre collapsed on top of them. What do you imagine bitcoin mining is like? It seems a bit weird to compare it to actual underground mining.
- caf 6y agoIf it's true that Bitcoin mining is concentrated in these regions with cheap coal-fired electricity, there does seem to be a fairly direct linkage from coal-mining to coal-fired power plants to Bitcoin miners without too much of a reach. If Bitcoin mining is using 0.5% of the world's electricity output (a frankly astonishing number) and mining is concentrated in Xinjiang, then what percentage of Xinjiang's electricity usage is going to mining?
- yoavm 6y agoI never said mining Bitcoins was dangerous. Only that it makes a lot of sense that Bitcoin miners are usually not those who get rich from Bitcoin.
- robjan 6y agoThe people down in the mines digging gold / blood diamonds are replaced by computers. I don't think the people who own these computers are being exploited.
- yoavm 6y agoI don't know how people read anymore. I just mentioned that saying "This privileged crypto-colonialism almost exclusively benefits white men" does not contradict with saying Bitcoin is mined in China, like the parent comment was hinting.