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> “We know they're not. Bitcoin miners seek out the cheapest energy, which is mostly fossil.” - Citation needed My understanding is that the cheapest electrici
by lowkey 5y ago
> “We know they're not. Bitcoin miners seek out the cheapest energy, which is mostly fossil.”
- Citation needed
My understanding is that the cheapest electricity sources are a result of massive excess energy available far from population sources. These are often renewables including hydro, wind, solar, nuclear and geothermal. In some cases older coal plants with excess capacity will be cheap in the short term, but these are always going to suffer from material operating cost per Gigawatt to pay for fuel, unlike renewable alternatives which mostly require upfront investment but not ongoing fuel expense.
Once the capital is spent on renewable capacity it is a sunk cost and the marginal cost of electricity production is close to zero. That can never be the case for coal or othe fossil fuels that will always have some marginal fuel cost per unit of electricity produced.
If dirty coal and other hydrocarbons are the problem, lets tax or ban those.