Live data from Hacker News

Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

thedailychain.com

21–30 of 38 posts

Re: Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

#21

I wonder what can be done about this. These crypto calculations are totally useless RNG and are trashing our planet. One solution I have seen is to charge for power on a non linear scale so for normal users its fairly cheap but if you start to use very high amounts of power it becomes more expensive per kwh. This method doesn't sit too well with me but I don't have any other better suggestions.

> I wonder what can be done about this.

You can do something about this: support Proof of Stake crypto-currencies and denounce Proof of Work ones.

Re: Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

#22
post #13
post #9

Interesting headline because it's totally accurate and there is nothing wrong with it but it still feels very misleading. Does anyone know what the AP standard is for referencing the country VS the state of Georgia? Is this discouraged?

I live in the US and if I see Georgia in the news, I tend to assume it's the country rather than the US state.

Same, unless it's about eroding rights for women's reproductive health

Re: Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

#23
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every KwH spent on useless calculations could be better spent heating a home, lighting a room, smelting some ore, or literally anything productive.

Not totally true. As I pointed out in previous HN threads, there is a lot of power used by miners that would otherwise be unused. In the Chinese regions of Yunan and Sichuan, there is such an overcapacity of hydropower that dams are forced to release water (without spinning the turbines) which amounts to over 100 TWh wasted every year. So just these 2 regions let more hydropower go to literal waste than the worldwide…

I wonder why they don't use it to make synthetic gas.

Re: Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

#24
post #16
post #9

Interesting headline because it's totally accurate and there is nothing wrong with it but it still feels very misleading. Does anyone know what the AP standard is for referencing the country VS the state of Georgia? Is this discouraged?

> [...] it still feels very misleading [...] referencing the country VS the state of Georgia You know, there exists a world outside the US. And yet, when "Georgia" and "nation" is mentioned in the same sentence, you feel misled because it doesn't refer to the US state of Georgia? The problem is with you, not with the headline.

Nah. It’s still ambiguous. I also read it to be referring to the state of Georgia in the the US Nation. It would be a lot clearer to say Nation of Georgia. Then there’s no ambiguity.

Re: Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

#25

> region where electricity is free That's your problem right there. You either need floating prices or strict regulation to prevent misallocation of resources.

It’s a fair bit worse than this. Organized crime ensures that power is free for mining.

https://www.wired.com/story/cryptocurrency-boom-post-soviet-...

Re: Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

#26
There are plenty of proof of stake consensus protocols out there already (Avalanche, iChing, Ouroboros, ...). These do not require the huge power demands of proof of work to provide network security. As a result, they also don't need the high ongoing investment to support the decentralized network.

Re: Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

#27

I wonder what can be done about this. These crypto calculations are totally useless RNG and are trashing our planet. One solution I have seen is to charge for power on a non linear scale so for normal users its fairly cheap but if you start to use very high amounts of power it becomes more expensive per kwh. This method doesn't sit too well with me but I don't have any other better suggestions.

> I wonder what can be done about this. You can do something about this: support Proof of Stake crypto-currencies and denounce Proof of Work ones.

In contrast to proof of work, proof of stake will support itself since it doesn't come with the high power demands.

Re: Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

#28
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] it still feels very misleading [...] referencing the country VS the state of Georgia You know, there exists a world outside the US. And yet, when "Georgia" and "nation" is mentioned in the same sentence, you feel misled because it doesn't refer to the US state of Georgia? The problem is with you, not with the headline.

Nah. It’s still ambiguous. I also read it to be referring to the state of Georgia in the the US Nation. It would be a lot clearer to say Nation of Georgia. Then there’s no ambiguity.

> It’s still ambiguous.

It's a headline, not a summary.

> I also read it to be referring to the state of Georgia in the the US Nation.

It's okay to misunderstand the headline – if I were a resident of the US, I would have probably interpreted "Georgia" as the US state as well. But it is not justified to blame this on the headline, or to feel "misled" by it.

Re: Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

#29

I wonder what can be done about this. These crypto calculations are totally useless RNG and are trashing our planet. One solution I have seen is to charge for power on a non linear scale so for normal users its fairly cheap but if you start to use very high amounts of power it becomes more expensive per kwh. This method doesn't sit too well with me but I don't have any other better suggestions.

This is literally how most electricity is charged. I’ve been in probably 30+ non European countries and it is frequently billed this way. Potable water is usually the same. Residential users rarely exceed the standard allowance so they never come across tiered pricing.

In fact most larger cities not only have tier pricing but also peak pricing inside tier levels.

Commercial and industrial is its own game, they have tiers and on/off peak charges along with load shedding requirements. Often it’s billed not just kWh but also peak amperage draw.

Edit: by load shedding I mean commercial/industrial end users often have to be able to accept incoming excess power from the grid that residential use isn’t consuming due to weather/events grid failures etc. Power grids are immensely complex and very interesting beasts.

Re: Crypto Miners in Georgia Consume 10% of the Entire Nation’s Power

#30
As a side note; I was lucky enough to visit the town from the article, Mestia, a couple of years ago while doing a ski-touring holiday in Georgia and it was a truly remarkable place. Traveling there took hours driving on steep mountain roads which was constantly blocked due to rock slides and snow. When we finally arrived one of the first ting we saw was a wolf walking the outskirt of the town, which the town had a quite clever solution to, packs of gigantic dogs roaming free around the town. The town itself is packed with Svaneti Towers, which is placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. So if you get the chance, please visit Svaneti before tourism or/and cypto miners destroys is.

And btw; the skiing was awesome!

Post reply on HN