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Bitcoin miners are buying power plants

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41–50 of 578 posts

Re: Bitcoin miners are buying power plants

#41

I keep reading that coal is uncompetitive even to operate because of renewables. So what’s the deal here? Is it the need for consistent base load electricity that caused them to choose coal?

The plant was converted to natural gas (even before it started mostly powering bitcoin hashing).

Re: Bitcoin miners are buying power plants

#43

Turns out if you can make money burning stuff people will buy stuff to burn as long as the cost to burn is less than money earned. Who knew! Of course this won’t be a problem until it is.

This reminds me of the "Cash for Ash" scandal in Northern Ireland, where people were doing exactly that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_Heat_Incentive_scand...

Re: Bitcoin miners are buying power plants

#44
post #24

Is it possible for people to source or certify sustainable Bitcoin? Since there is a transaction chain, can you choose to buy or boycott “dirty coins”?

There is a crypto called Monero that doesn't have this problem. it is growing fast.

AFAIK monero runs on POW as well so from an environmental impact level I don't see how it's any different. From a traceability perspective I don't see a difference either because mining can be done anonymously. You really can't track a mined block to a specific power plant. I guess you can set up some sort of voluntary program for green miners, and treat non-compliant blocks as "dirty", but with monero this wouldn't be possible so everything would be treated as "dirty".

Re: Bitcoin miners are buying power plants

#45
post #24

Is it possible for people to source or certify sustainable Bitcoin? Since there is a transaction chain, can you choose to buy or boycott “dirty coins”?

It's still on the same power grid. The renewable energy would have been used one way or another. It's still contributing to the burning of fossil fuels on the grid.

Re: Bitcoin miners are buying power plants

#46
post #13

Every time I'm like "BTC is roasting the planet" people come out of the woodwork to remind me about renewable energy. Funny I don't see any of them here....

This case seems like an aberration, though? I think the logic goes something like this: bitcoin miners have a huge incentive to find the cheapest power in the world; renewable energy sources are cheaper than fossil fuels and getting cheaper all the time; therefore miners will prefer renewable power.

Re: Bitcoin miners are buying power plants

#47
post #24

Is it possible for people to source or certify sustainable Bitcoin? Since there is a transaction chain, can you choose to buy or boycott “dirty coins”?

There is a crypto called Monero that doesn't have this problem. it is growing fast.

Proof of stake is in or will be in just about every major crypto except bitcoin...

Re: Bitcoin miners are buying power plants

#49
post #24

Is it possible for people to source or certify sustainable Bitcoin? Since there is a transaction chain, can you choose to buy or boycott “dirty coins”?

There is a crypto called Monero that doesn't have this problem. it is growing fast.

Monero uses PoW mining as well.

Re: Bitcoin miners are buying power plants

#50
post #46
post #13

Every time I'm like "BTC is roasting the planet" people come out of the woodwork to remind me about renewable energy. Funny I don't see any of them here....

This case seems like an aberration, though? I think the logic goes something like this: bitcoin miners have a huge incentive to find the cheapest power in the world; renewable energy sources are cheaper than fossil fuels and getting cheaper all the time; therefore miners will prefer renewable power.

Renewables are getting cheaper and are in certain circumstances but in general they definitely are not cheaper than fossil fuels.
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