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How is this actually enforceable? Anyone with internet and power can mine. Could they firewall the entire bootstrap IP list for Bitcoin mining?

zucker42 5y ago
They don't have to block Bitcoin through technical means; they just have to (figuratively) hit a sufficient number of violators with a $5 wrench. [1] [1] https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/
nness 5y ago
I imagine the physical footprint of large-scale mining operations will make it easy to find miners. And as Chinese companies looking to operate on the internet need to acquire a license from the Government, they're probably less likely to risk their whole business for crypto payments/trading.
WJW 5y ago
> Could they firewall the entire bootstrap IP list for Bitcoin mining? I mean, yes that would be one way. But apart from that, they don't need to find every last one. Nobody cares about a miner making $0.5 per day on their GPU. The target is the big mining farms drawing multiple megawatts of electricity and you can just ask the power company for the address of anyone using that much electricity. There can't be _that_ many of them, so just visit them all and see if they are running a legit power-intensive business like a metal foundry or if it is a crypto mining farm.
josefx 5y ago
> Anyone with internet and power can mine. How hard could it be for the Chinese government to identify suspiciously large amounts of power use? Malaysia of all places recently managed to seize and destroy around a thousand bitcoin mining rigs.
BitwiseFool 5y ago
It is enforceable at the citizen and institutional level. I know many decentralized cryptocurrency advocates tout the fact that no government can literally modify the blockchain. While accurate, that is not the point. Governments don't need to do that because they basically have free reign to enforce laws and regulations on its citizenry. Sure you can set up a miner in China, but if the authorities find out you're going to prison. The State might not be able to stop all mining, but they will definitely force it underground and make it a very risky thing to do. A total prevention of an activity is never the actual goal of a ban, the real goal is just to stop the vast majority of it from happening.
ds 5y ago
Its not about that. If its not easy or possible to exchange BTC for goods or fiat, it becomes a novelty. You can never kill crypto, but you can certainly make it so that it becomes like beanie babies or tulips, where only a minority of people feel it has any value in the current day. Bottom of the line is always going to be if you can exchange crypto for goods. If most people feel that the crypto is worthless, the value will plunge and the buyer pool will as well.
andreilys 5y ago
Given that the CCP has a monopoly on violence and has been known to disappear those who cross them, it’s not far fetched to imagine crypto miners having the same fate.

zucker42 5y ago

They don't have to block Bitcoin through technical means; they just have to (figuratively) hit a sufficient number of violators with a $5 wrench. [1] [1] https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/

nness 5y ago

I imagine the physical footprint of large-scale mining operations will make it easy to find miners. And as Chinese companies looking to operate on the internet need to acquire a license from the Government, they're probably less likely to risk their whole business for crypto payments/trading.

WJW 5y ago

> Could they firewall the entire bootstrap IP list for Bitcoin mining? I mean, yes that would be one way. But apart from that, they don't need to find every last one. Nobody cares about a miner making $0.5 per day on their GPU. The target is the big mining farms drawing multiple megawatts of electricity and you can just ask the power company for the address of anyone using that much electricity. There can't be _that_ many of them, so just visit them all and see if they are running a legit power-intensive business like a metal foundry or if it is a crypto mining farm.

josefx 5y ago

> Anyone with internet and power can mine. How hard could it be for the Chinese government to identify suspiciously large amounts of power use? Malaysia of all places recently managed to seize and destroy around a thousand bitcoin mining rigs.

BitwiseFool 5y ago

It is enforceable at the citizen and institutional level. I know many decentralized cryptocurrency advocates tout the fact that no government can literally modify the blockchain. While accurate, that is not the point. Governments don't need to do that because they basically have free reign to enforce laws and regulations on its citizenry. Sure you can set up a miner in China, but if the authorities find out you're going to prison. The State might not be able to stop all mining, but they will definitely force it underground and make it a very risky thing to do. A total prevention of an activity is never the actual goal of a ban, the real goal is just to stop the vast majority of it from happening.

ds 5y ago

Its not about that. If its not easy or possible to exchange BTC for goods or fiat, it becomes a novelty. You can never kill crypto, but you can certainly make it so that it becomes like beanie babies or tulips, where only a minority of people feel it has any value in the current day. Bottom of the line is always going to be if you can exchange crypto for goods. If most people feel that the crypto is worthless, the value will plunge and the buyer pool will as well.

andreilys 5y ago

Given that the CCP has a monopoly on violence and has been known to disappear those who cross them, it’s not far fetched to imagine crypto miners having the same fate.