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This kind of thinking is why cryptocurrency miners are setting up shop at substations. They get severely discounted electricity from the utilities, in exchange
by zdragnar 5y ago
This kind of thinking is why cryptocurrency miners are setting up shop at substations. They get severely discounted electricity from the utilities, in exchange for ramping up and down their servers to keep the grid load balanced.
Except, of course, cryptocurrency isn't nearly as useful as, say, desalinated water.
- orasis 5y ago“Except, of course, cryptocurrency isn't nearly as useful as, say, desalinated water.” Heresy!!
- vkou 5y ago> Except, of course, cryptocurrency isn't nearly as useful as, say, desalinated water. I'd like to expand on this a bit. The major problem with cryptocurrency is that the value of a typical coin seems to be ~ the cost of electricity needed to mine one. This means that a crypto miner turns $1 of energy into ~$1 of wealth. As far as business plans go, this is an absolutely horrific use of energy. Nearly no other business produces so little wealth, for such a high energy input. The economy in general, by the way, turns $1 of energy into ~$17 of wealth. [1] [1] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36754#:~:text=Expressed%20as%20a%20percent%20of,lowest%20since%20at%20least%201970 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36754#:~:tex....
- zdragnar 5y agoThat's why they are pursuing deals with electric companies. In exchange for helping with loaf balancing, they get electricity well below market rates. They are making a killing. Everyone who buys the coins are just helping to remove the pandemic stimulus from the economy, which I suppose is its own sort of good.