3 ms·
> Maybe because Bitcoin mining is rapidly moving away from dirty coal-fired electricity generation in China, and toward clean and renewable energy sources. Thi
by qeternity 5y ago
> Maybe because Bitcoin mining is rapidly moving away from dirty coal-fired electricity generation in China, and toward clean and renewable energy sources.
This doesn't solve the problem. Miners are consuming renewable power that would otherwise displace coal/gas elsewhere on the grid.
The narrative that miners are somehow backstopping renewables just doesn't work.
- GoblinSlayer 5y agoRenewable power doesn't displace coal elsewhere. It's a fairy tale.
- qeternity 5y agoI mean it either prevents new hydrocarbon from being built, or as we’ve seen in a lot of places in the US where coal is wildly uneconomic, it outright displaces coal.
- GoblinSlayer 5y agoIt can displace coal on spot, but not remotely.
- latchkey 5y ago> Miners are consuming renewable power that would otherwise displace coal/gas elsewhere on the grid. This isn't necessarily true. Transporting electricity over distances is expensive. I've seen the pricing. Coinmint, in upstate NY, has a direct feed from Moses-Saunders damn. The lines were originally built to feed the Alcoa Aluminum smelter that once existed there (and became a superfund site). There isn't anywhere else that the power company can send the power, without a huge investment.