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Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

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Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#31

Post by lsllc »

Uberphallus wrote: post #26
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #6

I've never heard of Abkhazia before, so I had to look it up. It's a partially recognized state, part of Georgia [0]. There's even been a war in 1992-1993, after the collapse of the USSR [1]. Sometimes I'm still surprised of my ignorance about important facts that happened during my lifetime. Anyway, the next question for me was: why is electricity so cheap there, and should I assume it's cheap 24/7, and therefore gen…

I've been there during my urbex days. Frozen conflict zone, not unlike Transnistria, South Ossetia or Nagorno Karabakh. The border is militarized, except the Georgian side which doesn't seem to consider Abkhazia a threat. Lots of abandoned infrastructure because the native Georgian population was killed and/or fleed, and hasn't been harnessed for some reason. Abkhaz cross the border daily to buy basic stuff from Geor…

Is this the Abhazian side? The bridge not far from Zugdidi?

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#32

Post by Giorgi »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #6

I've never heard of Abkhazia before, so I had to look it up. It's a partially recognized state, part of Georgia [0]. There's even been a war in 1992-1993, after the collapse of the USSR [1]. Sometimes I'm still surprised of my ignorance about important facts that happened during my lifetime. Anyway, the next question for me was: why is electricity so cheap there, and should I assume it's cheap 24/7, and therefore gen…

Electricity is free for them, because Georgia considers it's as part of Georgia. Abkhazia right now is local mafia-run region by Russian occupant forces (Russia actually has military bases there).

Nothing is going on there economically, it is slow decaying society so their only income is mining operations like this.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#33

Post by charcircuit »

Jonnax wrote: post #5

How does the network protocol of bitcoin work? Would governments be able to block it? Can it be DDoS-ed?

It's a custom unencrypted P2P network protocol. A government could detect someone using this protocol and block it. It technically can not be DDoS'd. Though if you were you could DDoS the bootstrap nodes and that would make it harder to join the network. If governments block communication it can cause the network to split making it unclear which "half" of the network is the real one. It would create a fork.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#34

Post by georgyo »

Nextgrid wrote: post #18
f311a wrote: post #2

Electricity there is very cheap (ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 US cents per kWh). The government has closed around 300 mining facilities in order to reduce energy shortages. There are tens of such videos on the Youtube channel.

This seems like the wrong approach. I don't see how closing large-scale mining facilities will suddenly solve the problem. As long as the energy remains cheap, mining will just move underground. I could see miners offering ordinary villagers kickbacks to "host" a few miners on their premises as to conceal the energy consumption behind what appears to be legitimate usage.

What is the alternative? Raise energy costs for people who may not be able to afford it because of of a few abusers?

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#35

Post by Proven »

Remote villages are also causing blackouts to bitcoin miners.

The problem is (as almost always) incompetent and/or corrupt government officials. Why can't they manage?

They either won't (getting paid in BTC to mismanage) or can't. Perhaps they should replace those bums or privatize power utilities. Or give up independence, if they can't manage themselves.

Another way is simply increase the price to everyone to whatever is going rate in that wider area plus 10%, and the miners will likely move out in no time. Although it'd be better to privatize everything.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#36

Post by chromanoid »

disruptalot wrote: post #22
ArkanExplorer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am talking about Proof-of-Work being attached to an 'asset' of astronomical value. Governments should ban the transaction of PoW cryptocurrencies on environmental grounds, in addition to the misallocation of computer chips.

Bitcoin without PoW has no value. It's the entire reason it works. Without expending a finite resource to produce another, you can't constrain a money supply nor prevent it from attacks. Governments would be unwise to ban a voluntary system for the same reason they don't ban any other uses of energy that people question the value of (there are plenty). In any case, it will not stop, only move. If not to another massi…

There are many things governments rightfully ban for ecological reasons (e.g. energy inefficient house building, inefficient light bulbs, single-use plastic, blast fishing, many forms of waste disposal). Just because Bitcoin happens on the computer should not exempt it from that.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#37

Post by Uberphallus »

lsllc wrote: post #31
Uberphallus wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been there during my urbex days. Frozen conflict zone, not unlike Transnistria, South Ossetia or Nagorno Karabakh. The border is militarized, except the Georgian side which doesn't seem to consider Abkhazia a threat. Lots of abandoned infrastructure because the native Georgian population was killed and/or fleed, and hasn't been harnessed for some reason. Abkhaz cross the border daily to buy basic stuff from Geor…

Is this the Abhazian side? The bridge not far from Zugdidi?

You see the Abkhazian side (pic taken from the Georgian side). Exactly that bridge! Have you been around there?

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#38

Post by tho234234987 »

I'm surprised the rich farmers of India (yes, the kind "protesting" recently) haven't started Bitcoin mining - electricity for agriculture is free in much of India (along with a lot more freebies, and no taxes). I guess it's mostly the intermittent state of the supply that's the problem.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#39

Post by chii »

georgyo wrote: post #34
Nextgrid wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like the wrong approach. I don't see how closing large-scale mining facilities will suddenly solve the problem. As long as the energy remains cheap, mining will just move underground. I could see miners offering ordinary villagers kickbacks to "host" a few miners on their premises as to conceal the energy consumption behind what appears to be legitimate usage.

What is the alternative? Raise energy costs for people who may not be able to afford it because of of a few abusers?

raise the price by tiers. A person can only use so much, but mining btc has infinite appetite. The price of electricity should reflect the cost, and subsidies should only be targeted at limited cases.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#40

Post by codecamper »

Nextgrid wrote: post #18
f311a wrote: post #2

Electricity there is very cheap (ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 US cents per kWh). The government has closed around 300 mining facilities in order to reduce energy shortages. There are tens of such videos on the Youtube channel.

This seems like the wrong approach. I don't see how closing large-scale mining facilities will suddenly solve the problem. As long as the energy remains cheap, mining will just move underground. I could see miners offering ordinary villagers kickbacks to "host" a few miners on their premises as to conceal the energy consumption behind what appears to be legitimate usage.

You cannot move "underground" when you are sucking that much power.

The government did what they should have done, and what all governments should have done a long time ago and shut this nonsense down. It's sucking up resources and only adding to wealth inequality.

Bitcoin rewarded a small group of very smart people very very very well. It then rewarded morons... hordes and hordes of morons very very well too. We will be living with the consequence of this for decades to come.

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