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The problem here is that the bitcoin miners are very likely driving up electricity prices for everyone else while generating very little economic activity and v
by qqqwerty 4y ago
The problem here is that the bitcoin miners are very likely driving up electricity prices for everyone else while generating very little economic activity and value for the community. The millions of dollars that these miners are getting to turn off their rigs is quite literally coming from other rate payers. And the additional demand on the grid when they are operating is almost certainly pushing up prices outside of a handful of periods where they maybe significant excess electricity supply.
In your example, a casino may have questionably social utility, but it does provide local jobs. And an aluminum smelter may be fairly automated, but it provides significant economic value. Bitcoin mining provides neither of these things.
- janandonly 4y agoThe more than one thousand employees of Texas largest BTC mining company (Riot) would disagree on this...
- qqqwerty 4y agoFrom their own press release in July 2022[1] they mined $6.8M worth of BTC, and "earned" $9.8M in power credits. They are literally making more money by abusing the curtailment incentives then they are from mining itself. And 1k employees is not a lot of employees. 28 million Texans are paying significantly higher electricity prices so a handful of bitcoin mining companies, employing a few thousand people at most, can rake in profits. [1] https://www.riotblockchain.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/135/riot-blockchain-announces-july-2022-production-and https://www.riotblockchain.com/news-media/press-releases/det...