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Without BTC miners using this cheap power, it could be used to replace coal and gas plants.

• capableweb 6y ago
  No, without those miners, the energy supply wouldn't have increased in the first place. In the energy market, demand drives supply, not the other way around. It's very uncommon to spend money on converting energy supply from coal/gas to other sources, as it doesn't make sense in terms of money for the companies. Instead they focus on creating new supply with renewables.
  • h4kor 6y ago
    So we built hydro plants and disrupted the local ecosystems to run bitcoin miners?
    • capableweb 6y ago
      No, organizations built hydro plants for whatever reason in places where supply ended up higher than demand, driving down the prices. With that move, Bitcoin miners saw the opportunity and placed themselves within that ecosystem. Bitcoin miners don't put their operations in the middle of nowhere and then ask someone to build hydro plants...
      • h4kor 6y ago
        > In the energy market, demand drives supply > Bitcoin miners don't put their operations in the middle of nowhere and then ask someone to build hydro plants... So now the demand follows the supply?
        • ric2b 6y ago
          Bitcoin mining demand is a small subset of energy demand.
      • danShumway 6y ago
        > without those miners, the energy supply wouldn't have increased in the first place. > So we built hydro plants [...] to run bitcoin miners? > No, organizations built hydro plants for whatever reason in places where supply ended up higher than demand So... by that logic, it seems that Bitcoin didn't increase the energy supply then.