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White House proposes 30 percent tax on electricity used for crypto mining

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Re: White House proposes 30 percent tax on electricity used for crypto mining

#11
I imagine cloud vendors having a new checkbox: are you doing crypto mining? You can lie, but then you’re committing tax fraud in a way that should be easy to prove if they notice you.

It’s the sort of thing they do in banking when they ask what a bank account is for.

Re: White House proposes 30 percent tax on electricity used for crypto mining

#12

Is there even that much crypto mining happening in the US anymore?

US mines more bitcoin than any other country. The big thing now is using natural gas from oil wells that are not connected to gas pipelines (it's not economical to connect them), so instead of flaring the gas off into the sky, they fuel a generator to power a bitcoin farm using essentially free electricity.

> US mines more bitcoin than any other country.

how do you know that? are there rankings somewhere? super curious

Re: White House proposes 30 percent tax on electricity used for crypto mining

#13

How would you even enforce this? I think crypto is a huge waste of electricity but this is not the answer.

I don't understand why this would be difficult to enforce? It's a tax on companies that are doing crypto mining, not on an individual running mining on their personal machine.

Re: White House proposes 30 percent tax on electricity used for crypto mining

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US mines more bitcoin than any other country. The big thing now is using natural gas from oil wells that are not connected to gas pipelines (it's not economical to connect them), so instead of flaring the gas off into the sky, they fuel a generator to power a bitcoin farm using essentially free electricity.

> US mines more bitcoin than any other country. how do you know that? are there rankings somewhere? super curious

https://ccaf.io/cbnsi/cbeci/mining_map

Re: White House proposes 30 percent tax on electricity used for crypto mining

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US mines more bitcoin than any other country. The big thing now is using natural gas from oil wells that are not connected to gas pipelines (it's not economical to connect them), so instead of flaring the gas off into the sky, they fuel a generator to power a bitcoin farm using essentially free electricity.

> US mines more bitcoin than any other country. how do you know that? are there rankings somewhere? super curious

Yes, quick google search will reveal many results.

Re: White House proposes 30 percent tax on electricity used for crypto mining

#17
post #2

Thanks for sharing this article! Do you think this proposed tax will significantly impact the profitability of crypto mining?

Spoiler: if they actually implement this and find a way to enforce it, the miners will just do it overseas.

That's probably a net benefit for the USA. The same people will still accrue the benefits of mining, but without stressing domestic infrastructure.

Re: White House proposes 30 percent tax on electricity used for crypto mining

#18

Wow, taxed based on how you use your computer huh? Doesn't sounds very American to me. What's next, taxed for fuzz testing? Taxed for using inefficient programming languages? FWIW I do not support the crypto space either, but if they want to use a computer to run an infinite loop for the end of time that's their business. Perhaps spending more effort on improving the power grid and using more renewable resources woul…

No.

You're taxed on how you're using energy. We're also taxed on how we use money. If we buy an electric car, we (used to) get a tax break.

You could see a tax break on energy used to charge an electric car, say.

Re: White House proposes 30 percent tax on electricity used for crypto mining

#19
post #2

Thanks for sharing this article! Do you think this proposed tax will significantly impact the profitability of crypto mining?

Spoiler: if they actually implement this and find a way to enforce it, the miners will just do it overseas.

That is probably the objective. Make it some other country's problem.
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