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If mining is a net positive for Kazakhstani miners, doesn't that make the country better off? That's a net export.
by fastball 5y ago
If mining is a net positive for Kazakhstani miners, doesn't that make the country better off? That's a net export.
- oblio 5y agoRead and be enlightened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)
- robjan 5y agoNo, because everyone pays higher electricity bills while a small number of people benefit from selling their mined crypto.
- dotancohen 5y agoThe traditional solution to that problem is taxation.
- fastball 5y agoHow is this different from a factory that uses a lot of electricity to produce shoes that are then exported? I thought that was a good thing to have in your country, but apparently because this is crypto it is suddenly a bad thing?
- depaya 5y agoA factory provides jobs to locals. A factory stimulates the economy by creating local economic activity (suppliers, logistics, construction, restaurants). A crypto operation might provide a small fraction of everything above while also producing nothing of tangible value to society.
- fastball 5y agoDoesn't matter how "tangible" the value is if foreigners are paying for it.
- ben_w 5y agoDutch disease is a thing even when the economic value isn’t being frequent dismissed as a Ponzi-adjacent scam, precisely because of foreigners paying for stuff in one sector disproportionately to all the others. I’m not an economist, so I doubt my understanding is either deep or broad enough to make a proper critique in Kazakhstan’s case.
- duxup 5y ago>If mining is a net positive for Kazakhstani miners, doesn't that make the country better off? How does that work?
- AlexandrB 5y agoTrickle down economics kicks in, surely. /s
- fastball 5y agoIf mining is profitable that means electricity is costing less than the proceeds of mining. If these miners are Kazakhstani, presumably they are spending the majority of these gains in-country, or are paying taxes on the proceeds. As such this should be a net gain for Kazakhstan, since I assume the majority of people buying the crypto the miners are generating are not in fact Kazakhstani. This doesn't seem complicated tbh and I'm actually struggling to understand why you wouldn't get this if you generally understand net imports/exports.
- duxup 5y agoI understand the imports and exports for goods that employ people create services and etc. Coin mining doesn't fit / necessarily that pattern at all. In the meantime they have power shortages so I'm not sure at all what you're thinking about here... your idea of cheap power is pretty meaningless when there's a shortage.
- pjc50 5y ago> If these miners are Kazakhstani Article implies a lot have moved from China. > presumably they are spending the majority of these gains in-country Unevidenced assumption, that they are even spending the gains at all - it's crypto, after all. > or are paying taxes on the proceeds Unevidenced assumption, probably false for crypto libertarians.
- AlexandrB 5y agoThis is my sarcastic answer of "trickle-down economics" just with more hand-wavy elaboration on how that might work. Amazing!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]