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>Cheap electricity in places such as Texas is expected to make the US a leading refuge for crypto miners. It's a good thing I don't live in Texas, because othe
by Hamuko 5y ago
>Cheap electricity in places such as Texas is expected to make the US a leading refuge for crypto miners.
It's a good thing I don't live in Texas, because otherwise I might be worried considering how shitty and unreliable ERCOT is already without widespread mining.
- Robotbeat 5y agoI think crypto mining is dumb, but it might actually help the ERCOT situation when combined with demand-response electricity pricing. Miners are gonna throttle back mining if electricity costs more than the mining output and they’ll mine when electricity cheap, supporting the price which helps the fiscal solvency of electricity producers.
- paulgb 5y agoBitcoin miners may actually make ERCOT more reliable, since they pre-buy a steady stream of electricity and can sell it back (or be paid to use less) during crises like their snow storm[1]. I still think the negative externalities of Bitcoin mining outweigh the positive ones, though. (Full disclosure, I'm short a company mentioned in that article) [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/08/bitcoin-mining-texas-electricity/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/08/bitcoin...