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Title ..checks out! I wonder why the government did not just seize these miners and put them to use for the local economy? If it makes money, why not?

by Ajay-p 5y ago

lvs 5y ago
Oh, and the government could deal all the heroin and guns it seizes too. What could possibly be wrong with that idea?
- MrStonedOne 5y ago
  They didn't seize the miners because the miners are bad on their own. this isn't like drugs. the miners aren't banned here. They seized them because they were used in other crime, ie, stealing electricity. Do police not auction off the cars they seize for their use as a getaway car?
bigmattystyles 5y ago
Presumably because they'd have to pay for power
- BelenusMordred 5y ago
  Malaysia has some of the cheapest retail power on Earth. This is the usual performative nonsense by a foolish government. They could have easily sold them at auction like they do with all sorts of other seized goods. ASIC's go for a few thousand dollars each.
  - ericd 5y ago
    Perhaps it's among the cheapest because it's subsidized as a public good? EDIT: According to Wikipedia, it's heavily tiered and heavily subsidized, but also that it shouldn't be particularly helpful for mining, unless they're splitting it into a bunch of accounts to stay in one of the lower tiers: Domestic consumer pricing per kWh used, subsidized 4.95 @ 1 to 200 kWh 7.59 @ 201 to 300 kWh 11.73 @ 301 to 600 kWh 12.41 @ 601 to 900 kWh 12.98 @ 901 kWh onwards (exchange rate of 4.4 MYR to US$1 on 24 November 2016)
    - OnlyLys 5y ago
      I live in Malaysia. Electricity is not very cheap once you go above 300 kWh. The current tiers (at least on my most recent monthly bill) are as follows: - RM 0.218 (USD 0.052) per kWh for the first 200kWh - RM 0.334 (USD 0.079) per kWh for the next 100kWh - RM 0.516 (USD 0.120) per kWh for the 300kWh after Those prices are before the 1.6% tax by the government. And furthermore, any usage above 600kWh is taxed an additional 6% by the energy company.
      - ericd 5y ago
        Thanks for the context! I thought the numbers on Wikipedia were a bit weird, looks like they were in US cents.
      - BelenusMordred 5y ago
        Live in Malaysia too and am always astounded how much power people use here, they seem very wasteful with aircon. Generally average about 250kwh per month for 2 people in a 1200 sqf apartment with occasional aircon use. Paying ~6c/kwh is much better than nearly everywhere else on Earth. As a westerner in the country it's basically a rounding error compared to other life costs. With government bonuses that get thrown around the cost really isn't much unless you are incredibly wasteful or have a huge family/house. Most of the country has gotten big power handouts for covid. I paid 30 RM ($7.50 USD) a few months ago. A pint down the pub costs nearly that.
ars 5y ago
Miners don't really make much money - the value of bitcoin is almost exactly equal to the cost of electricity to mine the bitcoin.
- Slartie 5y ago
  That's simply not true. Electricity prices vary by a considerable factor, even among the cheapest sources. The Bitcoin price is identical, globally. These two can only coexist if there is a considerable margin to be made in mining, allowing for it to be profitable in a relatively wide span of electricity prices (of course still excluding the highest-priced sources, it is not that wide!). As far as my information goes, there were times when mining a >30k$ coin was possible for less than 4k$ in electricity, if you had access to really cheap sources. That's far from "don't really make much money".
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    Bitcoin price is not identical globally as there is not one global market for trading fiat, not disagreeing Re: electricity prices, just nitpicking
    - celticninja 5y ago
      Bitcoin price is identical globally. The price of bitcoin in USD/GBP/EUR is pretty much the same with respect to the values of each currency. There may be outliers, eg. Venezuela, but that's because it might be priced in the local currency, which is itself inflating at a rapid pace, so it loses value against bitcoin and the dollar or euro
      - jazzyjackson 5y ago
        Can "Bitcoin price" be defined as something other than what it's selling for on various exchanges? Right now BTC is going for $31,599 on Bitpanda, $31,384 on eToro, and $30,327 on Coinmama.
        5y ago
aqme28 5y ago
If the government sees something as a public Bad[1], they're not going to put it back into the economy. If the government seizes drugs, they don't just redistribute it because it "makes money." [1]: Regardless of whether you agree with the government here. I also don't know if bitcoin mining is illegal or if it was just the stealing of electricity that was a problem.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- MrStonedOne 5y ago
  They didn't seize the miners because the miners are bad on their own. this isn't like drugs. the miners aren't banned here. They seized them because they were used in other crime, ie, stealing electricity. They could have recouped some of the cost of that stolen electricity by selling them to an outfit that actually pays for electricity.

Title ..checks out! I wonder why the government did not just seize these miners and put them to use for the local economy? If it makes money, why not?

by Ajay-p 5y ago

Title ..checks out! I wonder why the government did not just seize these miners and put them to use for the local economy? If it makes money, why not?

lvs 5y ago

Oh, and the government could deal all the heroin and guns it seizes too. What could possibly be wrong with that idea?

MrStonedOne 5y ago
They didn't seize the miners because the miners are bad on their own. this isn't like drugs. the miners aren't banned here. They seized them because they were used in other crime, ie, stealing electricity. Do police not auction off the cars they seize for their use as a getaway car?

bigmattystyles 5y ago

Presumably because they'd have to pay for power

BelenusMordred 5y ago
Malaysia has some of the cheapest retail power on Earth. This is the usual performative nonsense by a foolish government. They could have easily sold them at auction like they do with all sorts of other seized goods. ASIC's go for a few thousand dollars each.
- ericd 5y ago
  Perhaps it's among the cheapest because it's subsidized as a public good? EDIT: According to Wikipedia, it's heavily tiered and heavily subsidized, but also that it shouldn't be particularly helpful for mining, unless they're splitting it into a bunch of accounts to stay in one of the lower tiers: Domestic consumer pricing per kWh used, subsidized 4.95 @ 1 to 200 kWh 7.59 @ 201 to 300 kWh 11.73 @ 301 to 600 kWh 12.41 @ 601 to 900 kWh 12.98 @ 901 kWh onwards (exchange rate of 4.4 MYR to US$1 on 24 November 2016)
  - OnlyLys 5y ago
    I live in Malaysia. Electricity is not very cheap once you go above 300 kWh. The current tiers (at least on my most recent monthly bill) are as follows: - RM 0.218 (USD 0.052) per kWh for the first 200kWh - RM 0.334 (USD 0.079) per kWh for the next 100kWh - RM 0.516 (USD 0.120) per kWh for the 300kWh after Those prices are before the 1.6% tax by the government. And furthermore, any usage above 600kWh is taxed an additional 6% by the energy company.
    - ericd 5y ago
      Thanks for the context! I thought the numbers on Wikipedia were a bit weird, looks like they were in US cents.
    - BelenusMordred 5y ago
      Live in Malaysia too and am always astounded how much power people use here, they seem very wasteful with aircon. Generally average about 250kwh per month for 2 people in a 1200 sqf apartment with occasional aircon use. Paying ~6c/kwh is much better than nearly everywhere else on Earth. As a westerner in the country it's basically a rounding error compared to other life costs. With government bonuses that get thrown around the cost really isn't much unless you are incredibly wasteful or have a huge family/house. Most of the country has gotten big power handouts for covid. I paid 30 RM ($7.50 USD) a few months ago. A pint down the pub costs nearly that.

ars 5y ago

Miners don't really make much money - the value of bitcoin is almost exactly equal to the cost of electricity to mine the bitcoin.

Slartie 5y ago
That's simply not true. Electricity prices vary by a considerable factor, even among the cheapest sources. The Bitcoin price is identical, globally. These two can only coexist if there is a considerable margin to be made in mining, allowing for it to be profitable in a relatively wide span of electricity prices (of course still excluding the highest-priced sources, it is not that wide!). As far as my information goes, there were times when mining a >30k$ coin was possible for less than 4k$ in electricity, if you had access to really cheap sources. That's far from "don't really make much money".
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  Bitcoin price is not identical globally as there is not one global market for trading fiat, not disagreeing Re: electricity prices, just nitpicking
  - celticninja 5y ago
    Bitcoin price is identical globally. The price of bitcoin in USD/GBP/EUR is pretty much the same with respect to the values of each currency. There may be outliers, eg. Venezuela, but that's because it might be priced in the local currency, which is itself inflating at a rapid pace, so it loses value against bitcoin and the dollar or euro
    - jazzyjackson 5y ago
      Can "Bitcoin price" be defined as something other than what it's selling for on various exchanges? Right now BTC is going for $31,599 on Bitpanda, $31,384 on eToro, and $30,327 on Coinmama.
      - 5y ago

aqme28 5y ago

If the government sees something as a public Bad[1], they're not going to put it back into the economy. If the government seizes drugs, they don't just redistribute it because it "makes money." [1]: Regardless of whether you agree with the government here. I also don't know if bitcoin mining is illegal or if it was just the stealing of electricity that was a problem.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
MrStonedOne 5y ago
They didn't seize the miners because the miners are bad on their own. this isn't like drugs. the miners aren't banned here. They seized them because they were used in other crime, ie, stealing electricity. They could have recouped some of the cost of that stolen electricity by selling them to an outfit that actually pays for electricity.