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According to a report by the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s electric grid manager, crypto mining “consumed” more than 3,300 Gigawatt/h
by dkobia 3y ago
According to a report by the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s electric grid manager, crypto mining “consumed” more than 3,300 Gigawatt/hours of Texas grid energy in 2022, more than double the amount used 2021.
Riot Platforms’ mine in Rockdale, Texas, uses about the same amount of electricity as the nearest 300,000 homes, making it the most power-intensive Bitcoin mining operation in America.[1]
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/business/bitcoin-mining-electricity-pollution.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/business/bitcoin-mining-e...
- misja111 3y agoAt least we can take comfort in the fact that this computing power was used to support a platform popular with speculators, money launders, drug traders and ransom ware exploiters.
- kevinak 3y agoThat article is full of misinformation and has been debunked multiple times. Even the hero image is doctored to make it look smoggy and polluted. [0] Bitcoin mining is great for the Texas grid. Miners end up buying cheap excess energy and when there is a shortage they just turn off their miners, keeping the price from going haywire. Here's the CEO of Ercot explaining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKnRfDeFgr0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKnRfDeFgr0 [0]: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/did-the-new-york-times-manipulate-bitcoin-mine-footage https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/did-the-new-york-times-m...
- hotpotamus 3y agoI have a buddy who lives in rural south Texas who saw a couple containers with big fans on the side get dropped off near his town, connect power and set up some sort of liquid cooling lines to a pool. He assumed it was crypto mining, which was the only thing that made much sense to me as well. Interesting to see his on the ground observations as part of the larger story.