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Two Bitcoin mining companies are battling it out in a Texas town

JKCalhoun 5y ago
Aluminum plants shuts down in the U.S., Bitcoin mining take its place. Most (21st Century) American story ever?
capableweb 5y ago
> Mayor King says today’s arrangement between miners and ERCOT [The Electric Reliability Council of Texas] is pretty simple and mutually beneficial. Not only do miners make use of power otherwise going to waste, they also function as “interruptible load,” meaning they are able to turn off all of their machines with a few seconds’ notice when the grid is in a pinch and needs the extra power. Miners volunteer to do this because of financial incentives. Certainly a new and fresh perspective on the whole "Bitcoin is using up all of our electricity" discussion that is currently happening.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  It is also bullshit. Making this argument needs some evidence that the power would be "wasted". Bitdeer's website etc is full of greenwashing, but they use 3GW of power on this pyramid scheme. The Texas grid is mostly fossil fuel, so they are directly responsible for the pollution from the additional 200MW.
  - foxyv 5y ago
    There are also options to purchase power generation from wind only. This means that any generation fees charged to them would be put solely into the pockets of renewable energy providers. This would fund expanding demand for wind and solar in Texas. Now are they doing this? Possibly not. Power usage isn't necessarily a negative for carbon reduction.
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  Would that we did not have/need so much "excess energy".
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - Dma54rhs 5y ago
    You need as much as energy the peak is at, there's always some excess of it.
Symbiote 5y ago
There's no mention of the power source. The Rockdale coal power plant closed in 2018, so unless there's another, local plant, I don't belive they are using "waste" power that can't be sent elsewhere. They are here for the 200MW grid connection, not the supposed lack of transmission capacity. There's not even a mention of why the miners moved out of China. This is very poor journalism, just some one-sided points from the mine operators.
paulgb 5y ago
> To put that in context, Gibson says that downtown Dallas uses just 200 megawatts. “So it’s like having downtown Manhattan, downtown Dallas, all in our backyard,” continued Gibson. Bitcoiners often say “how much energy does the traditional banking sector use” when the environmental impacts of bitcoin mining are pointed out, so it really puts it in perspective that a single mining facility uses the same energy as the downtown of major financial capitals.
stevespang 5y ago
"Bitdeer is aloof, steeped in mystery, and definitely not keen on visitors". If these are Chinese interests I say stall them, box them in, into oblivion - - same thing done in China to some of our largest tech companies. What comes around - - goes around.
bob229 5y ago
Bitcoin is for morons. Ban crypto crap
moneywoes 5y ago
Is there any other coin worth mining besides BTC?
- tromp 5y ago
  https://www.f2pool.com/coins https://www.f2pool.com/coins lists minable coins sorted by daily issuance in dollars at current price.

Aluminum plants shuts down in the U.S., Bitcoin mining take its place. Most (21st Century) American story ever?

> Mayor King says today’s arrangement between miners and ERCOT [The Electric Reliability Council of Texas] is pretty simple and mutually beneficial. Not only do miners make use of power otherwise going to waste, they also function as “interruptible load,” meaning they are able to turn off all of their machines with a few seconds’ notice when the grid is in a pinch and needs the extra power. Miners volunteer to do this because of financial incentives. Certainly a new and fresh perspective on the whole "Bitcoin is using up all of our electricity" discussion that is currently happening.

Symbiote 5y ago
It is also bullshit. Making this argument needs some evidence that the power would be "wasted". Bitdeer's website etc is full of greenwashing, but they use 3GW of power on this pyramid scheme. The Texas grid is mostly fossil fuel, so they are directly responsible for the pollution from the additional 200MW.
- foxyv 5y ago
  There are also options to purchase power generation from wind only. This means that any generation fees charged to them would be put solely into the pockets of renewable energy providers. This would fund expanding demand for wind and solar in Texas. Now are they doing this? Possibly not. Power usage isn't necessarily a negative for carbon reduction.
JKCalhoun 5y ago
Would that we did not have/need so much "excess energy".
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Dma54rhs 5y ago
  You need as much as energy the peak is at, there's always some excess of it.

Symbiote 5y ago

There's no mention of the power source. The Rockdale coal power plant closed in 2018, so unless there's another, local plant, I don't belive they are using "waste" power that can't be sent elsewhere. They are here for the 200MW grid connection, not the supposed lack of transmission capacity. There's not even a mention of why the miners moved out of China. This is very poor journalism, just some one-sided points from the mine operators.

paulgb 5y ago

> To put that in context, Gibson says that downtown Dallas uses just 200 megawatts. “So it’s like having downtown Manhattan, downtown Dallas, all in our backyard,” continued Gibson. Bitcoiners often say “how much energy does the traditional banking sector use” when the environmental impacts of bitcoin mining are pointed out, so it really puts it in perspective that a single mining facility uses the same energy as the downtown of major financial capitals.

stevespang 5y ago

"Bitdeer is aloof, steeped in mystery, and definitely not keen on visitors". If these are Chinese interests I say stall them, box them in, into oblivion - - same thing done in China to some of our largest tech companies. What comes around - - goes around.

bob229 5y ago

Bitcoin is for morons. Ban crypto crap

moneywoes 5y ago

Is there any other coin worth mining besides BTC?

tromp 5y ago
https://www.f2pool.com/coins https://www.f2pool.com/coins lists minable coins sorted by daily issuance in dollars at current price.