3 ms·
Globally, that mix is 36% coal, 23% natural gas, 15% hydro, 10% nuclear, 5% wind, and a smattering of other sources [1]. Also note that bitcoin miners that hav
by LeifCarrotson 5y ago
Globally, that mix is 36% coal, 23% natural gas, 15% hydro, 10% nuclear, 5% wind, and a smattering of other sources [1].
Also note that bitcoin miners that have a choice of where to locate choose regions where electricity is cheap, such as those serviced by hydro plants..."most" is a slight stretch, "about half" would probably be more correct - but yeah, it's not good.
[1]: https://ourworldindata.org/electricity-mix https://ourworldindata.org/electricity-mix
- Aachen 5y agoIf only that cheap energy would have been available for yandex, maybe they'd have made a different choice than diesel... I've also heard machine learning training is done in places with cheap energy because the training isn't usually latency-sensitive (querying the trained model might be). Not all AI magic is equally useful, but translation engines are the example I heard of and that's definitely helping me a ton (works better than google translate) as a foreigner in Germany.