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Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

eurasianet.org

321–330 of 361 posts

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If big crypto-mining syndacates start using small scale nuclear (as some have shown interest in doing) to be carbon neutral, they could be on the vangaurd of proving out the technology and be a net positive in the medium to long term. They really want low, consistent prices for electricity. Hydro gives them that but nuclear could also. Solar and wind do not.

> If big crypto-mining syndacates start using small scale nuclear... Any volunteers for living in the exclusion zones?

Seems fine to me. I already have nuclear irradiated genes, I'm sterile, and I prefer nature for company over human beings.

(If you were sarcastically implying that no one would volunteer, you are mistaken. I encourage making your point more clearly and with less sarcasm, since a worthwhile discussion is possible if you do so.)

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Also mining rigs produce a lot of noise, are more likely to break down & need an internet connection 24/7. Not your average heater.

Immersion cooling makes it quiet and efficient, totally suitable for in-home use.

Cooling for your heater, genius idea!

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been several consensus failures from PoS, including the recent outage of Solana. One just needs to look at the Steem/Hive 'takeover' by Sun to see how political wars can form and threaten the security model in PoS world. Contrast with bcash incident of 2017. A few years ago, I saw a Hybrid PoS/Work chain (a satoshi-client derivative coin) being attacked in real time, and totally hijacked. Ultimately it was…

> the recent outage of Solana Do you mean [1]? It sounds like the consensus issues there were related to Solana's unusual PoH model. Validators being "unable to process all the proposed forks" would never happen in a BFT PoS model, like Tendermint etc, since forks cannot occur (under a 2/3 honesty assumption). > Ultimately it was a bug in the PoS logic that enabled it. To state the obvious, PoW chains can have bugs t…

Agreed about bugs. Bugs can exist everywhere. It is far easier to validate and test PoW code. Its a Contrasting: https://etherscan.io/blocks_forked and https://polygonscan.com/blocks_forked it would appear that indeed PoS BFT chains like Polygon can and do reorg, very regularly.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#324
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nah, I don't think it can be banned. At least not in the non-authoritarian parts of the world. Why can't it be banned? It's wasteful and closer to a Ponzi scheme than an actual currency. > Even if it is, they would need to break my fingers to prevent me running a Bitcoin node. And I will get the blocks via Satellite. If there was a credible threat, we would go somewhere it is not. That could be hard if many of the…

As someone who has been in this space a long time, I assure you I am idealistic in my positions. Hopelessly idealistic. What does Ban even mean? That it is illegal to run in places like the US? Very unlikely, and as more institutional money flows into it, it grows more unlikely. Some places are starting to put 401k/pension funds into it. Some places are raising it as legal tender. There is also that 1st amendment thi…

How is the first amendment relevant here?

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#325
post #62

I wonder if cryptominers in poorer countries speed up the buildout of more stable and robust electricity networks in the long run? I understand they sometimes stress it too much in the short run such as here and then the regulators have to take action but the interplay on a longer timescale would be interesting to see.

You could say the same about whether bridges to nowhere generate important economic robustness. The problem with this view is it ignores that such activity crowds out the ability to do something actually useful with the same resources, while also producing all the same externalities (both positive and negative).

This point hinges on the assumption that bitcoin itself doesn't provide any benefit to humanity.

If its a useless speculative asset with no purpose other than as a ponzi scheme then yes, all energy used towards it is a huge waste and needs to be eradicated immediately.

If it has the potential to allow people to save their wealth under unstable regimes, as a long term hedge against inflation, as away of getting people to save more instead of spending every penny they have before it depreciates, to cause real wages to rise again, to encourage actual economic productivity rather than continually investing fake printed currency into an endless series of economic bubbles producing significantly more environmental damage than anything that could occur as a result of bitcoin mining.... then it is not waste.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you must also mention is that electricity is a finite resource. Consuming electrical energy - even at a hydro power station - means the energy you used isn't delivered to somewhere else.

is electricity finite? i don't think so. you might say that the grid can only support a certain load at a some given time, but obviously more energy could be provided. in any case, i think it's silly to concern ourselves with (specifically Bitcoin's) energy consumption, as it's tiny compared to the efficiency gains that are realized elsewhere as a result of bitcoin's adoption.

Yes, electricity is finite. Just because you could add more power generation doesn’t mean it’s infinite, c’mon now.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#327
post #281

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Interest is not the same as usury whatever definition you use. The fact that your faith equates them does not make them equal. You are perfectly free to use them interchangeably in your mind but most people do not do so, and your use leads to misunderstandings. Interest, in traditional western societies is just the measure of the present value of future time, which is understood as valuable. Thus, money+time=“more mo…

> Interest is not the same as usury whatever definition you use. In Islam, there is no difference. If I lend you $10,000 and I ask for $10,000.01 back, that $.01 is usury. They are equal because both operate on the same exploitation principle, that not only pries on the poor, but exacerbates the wealth inequality gap that everyone is complaining about today. Once the door is open to artificially differentiate the two…

> use money in a moral way to extract value over time, by taking appropriate risk in a manner that is not exploitative

I've been reading on islamic banking recently, and I have to say that it appears one can arrive at a consistent philosophy and working economics with usury being prohibited. The world won't grind to a halt because capital is no longer entitled to gains by the virtue of purely existing, as opposed to being used productively. (Observe PoS vs PoW parallels, in the theme of this submission.)

You can lend money and earn a profit without interest, and you can pay for getting a credit without it being immoral. The trick is that both parties share both the gains and the risk, not just the lender being responsible for all the risk.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#328
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not hypocrisy. We need computers for a lot of solid, real life uses. We don't need cryptocurrencies for almost anything being peddled. They're supposed to be decentralized, but you can't really use them that way in 99% of situations. They're supposed to be currencies and instead they're vehicles for speculation. Etc. I think their slogan should be: "You don't really need cryptocurrencies for that".

PoW crypocurrencies are global communications systems that offer nonrepudiation, instant settlement, and finality; a subset additionally offer privacy. It's valuable to people who need those guarantees. There are speculators in every market.

> There are speculators in every market.

For crypto speculation is >.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If big crypto-mining syndacates start using small scale nuclear... Any volunteers for living in the exclusion zones?

Seems fine to me. I already have nuclear irradiated genes, I'm sterile, and I prefer nature for company over human beings. (If you were sarcastically implying that no one would volunteer, you are mistaken. I encourage making your point more clearly and with less sarcasm, since a worthwhile discussion is possible if you do so.)

I was a bit sarcastic, but the effects on real estate values alone prevent many from wanting to live near a plant.

The sarcasm came from the crypto part. The idea that swaths of US land would be devalued for the latest crypto pump and dump project makes me laugh and die inside.

I mean Solana is actually pretty cool. But all other crypto projects of which I am aware do not add value to our species as a whole. So adding nuclear power to the mix, for which the total cost of ownership is not even calculable? Just wow.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#330
post #57

And so it begins. In the developed world in particular, we're seeing the move away from fossil-fuel power. This is good but currently relatively expensive. Crypto mining is starting to have very real impact on the ability of other people to live. It is adversely and disproportionately affecting poor people (who pay a greater share of their income for power). And at best crypto provides extremely limited utility for s…

"extremely limited utility for society" is harldy an argument. It's limited today. In 10 years it can change many things for people (very possibly in areas that are not even close to crypto). Going to space had hardly any utility, going to Mars even less. But on the way there will a TON of progress and discoveries made that will be used in medicine, manufacturing etc.

> In 10 years it can change many things for people (very possibly in areas that are not even close to crypto).

Can you suggest some ways my life might be different in ten years thanks to cryptocurrency?

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