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> Why would it need to be free? It could be an ordinary investment that's paid off over time. If the Bitcoin rig isn't free then the villagers don't get shit f

• eru 4y ago
  Display a little imagination! They could invite outside miners to set up shop in the village. The miners would finance provide the capital, set up the mining rigs, and take all the bitcoin risk. The villagers would just sell them electricity. Just like they would sell electricity to any other business. No clue whether that's what's happening in Bhutan, but it's a perfectly valid business plan, and pays the villagers right away.
  • giantrobot 4y ago
    So Bitcoin miners will just go to some out of the way village in Africa to buy electricity? I don't need to imagine electrical utilities, those already exist. It doesn't make any fiscal sense to find some out of the way location with a small scale hydro generator to set up a Bitcoin miner. The amount the village would need to charge to make a worthwhile amount of money will certainly be above large scale utility rates. The Bitcoin miner in remote African village story smells like someone taking advantage of some villagers. They're either paying them below market rate for electricity or indenting them with a Bitcoin mining setup that will barely pay for itself over years.
    • eru 4y ago
      What do you mean by 'market rate'? If virtually no one else would buy the stranded electricity, the market rate would be zero otherwise. Anything more than zero is better for them. There's more than one bitcoin miner in the world, so the villagers could get some competitive bids.