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> Crypto mining has also taken off in the past year, bringing with it the industry’s power-intensive operations. Risking the real economy and even human lives
by hourago 4y ago
> Crypto mining has also taken off in the past year, bringing with it the industry’s power-intensive operations.
Risking the real economy and even human lives for this.
- blibble 4y agocan't they just cut them off? call it "load shedding"
- l1n 4y agoYep: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/15/crypto-energy-texas-power-grid/ https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/15/crypto-energy-texas-...
- leeoniya 4y ago> “The bitcoin miners were able to push over 1,000 [megawatts] back into the grid for ten-hour plus periods multiple times during the week.” that's an entire nuclear power plant worth of energy; how noble of them. no words :'(
- civilized 4y agoGood. Texas doesn't get to complain until Texas stops wasting electricity on virtual beanie babies.
- caymanjim 4y agoThey only shut down because the price is so low that margins are slim. Not like it was a benevolent act.
- abathur 4y agoIn theory, though they're presumably cutting slack out of the system (and presumably making the kind of maintenance mentioned here harder to perform unless they're willing to cut them off to do it?)
- landemva 4y agoMost of those non-critical data center loads are turned off now. Maybe electric cars can be programmed to not allow charging when the grid is stressed. And Smart TVs must power off. Compare that with compelling people to get vaxed to help the herd. Like: social contract, for the common good, gonna kill gramps if you don't vax don't stop charging your car.
- silisili 4y agoWhy not just charge progressively until people go away? You know, something like average cost to keep house at 80F at cost, 75F more, 70F more, but nothing too extreme yet. Then start charging something like 10x cost over that. Miners should just disappear themselves after that.
- bequanna 4y agoYea, this is load shedding and allows the utility to control certain appliances. The best example in my area is water heaters. The appliance and sometimes even the electricity is provided at a some discount but the power is disabled during peak usage. But I don't really see how you could incorporate the kind of complex pricing you describe. It would be too easy to cheat.
- silisili 4y agoWell they have similar things in place for basic charging more during peak hours and such, I guess I'm advocating for charging prohibitively more if found to be using way higher than normal amounts. Curious though, how would it be cheated? All of that said, a lot depends on the infrastructure. Most places I've lived still have dumb meters...which makes the idea rather moot.
- lovich 4y agoYou get pure, naked capitalism at that point where the little old lady who can only pony up 50 dollars a month to keep the ac running at below deadly temperatures loses out to the aluminum smelter or cryptominer willing to pay 200/ month because they make a profit. This causes political problems because people like capitalism until they see grandmas dieing so someone can make extra widgets, but it’s the US so we can’t say capitalistic behaviors have to be regulated to prevent that situation, and we get crazily inefficient solutions in response
- silisili 4y agoThe little old lady, in my case, would get power at cost to keep her home below 80F. Unless of course she's mining bitcoins or running a grow operation. I don't think power, or anything, should be highest bidder wins. But perhaps highest bidder wins above normal usage.