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Bitcoin mining has driven up energy bills for residents and businesses

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Re: Bitcoin mining has driven up energy bills for residents and businesses

#4
I'm not paying Bitcoin's energy bill. Bitcoin is paying its own bill, but the electric grid is a marketplace with a finite supply. So the people who own those companies are raising the rates (supply and demand).

Electricity, much like housing, should not be a place where regular folks can get priced out of the market by corporations.

You just want me to be mad at bitcoin so I don't notice that the system itself is sadistic.

Re: Bitcoin mining has driven up energy bills for residents and businesses

#5
>Cheap electricity in places such as Texas is expected to make the US a leading refuge for crypto miners.

It's a good thing I don't live in Texas, because otherwise I might be worried considering how shitty and unreliable ERCOT is already without widespread mining.

Re: Bitcoin mining has driven up energy bills for residents and businesses

#7
When chain letters (e.g. the Send a Time pyramid scheme) caused impact to the postal system beyond what the system was designed to handle, to the detriment of the intended users of the system, chain letters were banned. Now, Bitcoin serves as a similar, though obfuscated, pyramid scheme that is detrimental to intended usage of the power system for productiviry or enjoyment. I see no reason not to apply the same solution.

Re: Bitcoin mining has driven up energy bills for residents and businesses

#8

I’m paying to subsidise the fossil fuel industry, I care more about that, I’m just not outages about this.

You do realize that energy being used to mine crypto is generated in good part by those fossil fuels you care about, right?

https://www.govtech.com/news/bitcoin-mining-in-upstate-new-y...

Re: Bitcoin mining has driven up energy bills for residents and businesses

#9

I’m paying to subsidise the fossil fuel industry, I care more about that, I’m just not outages about this.

Welcome to climate change in the 21st century, where we'll be outraged/distracted by everything but how ~100 companies are responsible for 70% of global emissions[1]. Today we’ll be talking about evil terrorism enabling cryptocurrencies. Tomorrow we’ll be talking about individual choice and SUVs.

[1]:https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10...

Re: Bitcoin mining has driven up energy bills for residents and businesses

#10

I'm not paying Bitcoin's energy bill. Bitcoin is paying its own bill, but the electric grid is a marketplace with a finite supply. So the people who own those companies are raising the rates (supply and demand). Electricity, much like housing, should not be a place where regular folks can get priced out of the market by corporations. You just want me to be mad at bitcoin so I don't notice that the system itself is sa…

> You just want me to be mad at bitcoin so I don't notice that the system itself is sadistic.

More charitably: it’s easier and intellectually lazier to point at a bogeyman than to understand and explain structural issues

Same happens in housing wrt furor over gentrification and luxury housing. Blame the rich foreign investors and tech bros instead of the structure of the marketplace and enforced scarcity of the zoning system!

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