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> Significantly, the Xinjiang and Sichuan regions of China combined account for more than 50 percent of the overall Bitcoin mining hash rate I don't get it, doesn't this effectively mean China can force a 51% attack by just strongarming the pools that operate there?
> Significantly, the Xinjiang and Sichuan regions of China combined account for more than 50 percent of the overall Bitcoin mining hash rate I don't get it, doesn't this effectively mean China can force a 51% attack by just strongarming the pools that operate there?
Yes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are a few steps in between, but if the chain of events really is: coal mine accidents > coal shortage > power blackouts > drop in bitcoin mining, then the end result is effectively they were indeed slaving away for bitcoin.
I think you got cause and effect reversed. The correct chain of events is: coal miners slave away to produce coal, which is generally burned to produce heat. Part of that heat is used to run turbines to electric generators[1], and part of the generated electricity is used for bitcoin mining. Does this mean they're slaving away for bitcoin mining? I guess, but only partially. Saying they're slaving away for bitcoin mi…
Something something bitcoin transcends govts
> Significantly, the Xinjiang and Sichuan regions of China combined account for more than 50 percent of the overall Bitcoin mining hash rate I don't get it, doesn't this effectively mean China can force a 51% attack by just strongarming the pools that operate there?
yeah, well more specifically they could force a preferred fork to assume the "Bitcoin" ticker (BTC) by denying power to chinese miners on the disfavored fork. exchanges and miners, rather than the developers, ultimately determine this, as there's no in-band way to control what ticker is used for trading what token.
https://dcgco.medium.com/bitcoin-scaling-agreement-at-consen...
> Significantly, the Xinjiang and Sichuan regions of China combined account for more than 50 percent of the overall Bitcoin mining hash rate I don't get it, doesn't this effectively mean China can force a 51% attack by just strongarming the pools that operate there?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
... to appease Germany's environmentalists who saw shutting down working nuclear plants as a major win. (Yes, I know it's a different source of coal. But energy, in the age of oil tankers and thousand-mile pipelines, is fungible.)
Germany is replacing nuclear/coal with wind/solar energy: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energiemix#/media/Datei:Energi... (grey = wind, red = nuclear, black/brown = coal) Both nuclear and coal are shrinking since ~ 2000 and both sources of energy have been replaced by renewables since then. Currently ~40% of power produced in Germany comes from renewables. Wind energy has become #1 source of power from 0 twenty years…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, you probably already want working staffed coal plants when the war starts.
It seems far easier and cheaper to keep the nukes running and just stockpile, like, a suitcase worth of uranium.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes.
I'm not sure about that. Most miner operations in the US run only a fraction of the day to take advantage of electrical savings that a lot of operations in China wouldn't be doing. So if miners started returning higher yields we would output a larger hash rate. If we actually needed to protect against a 51% attack we could ramp up accordingly.