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Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

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131–140 of 278 posts

Re: Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, aren't there laws that regulate the usage of buildings? Where I live (EU) you definitely cannot host mining racks in living premises. Just to get the higher power links you get questions asked.

how does that sort of regulation actually work? You can obviously have a personal computer. surely you can have a few computers. at what point does the government say you have too many computers?

"The government" probably doesn't say it; people who are negatively impacted or forced to take on extra risk because of mining activity are the ones to say something.

For example, the electricity provider probably objects precisely when the current you're drawing exceeds the safe limits of their equipment and wiring. If they're particularly on the ball, they at least come investigate as soon as they notice an unusually high current-draw for that individual residence.

You're generally free to exceed the safety limits of the equipment and wiring within your own structure, since you pay all the costs of any resulting incident/accident. But if you're covering those costs via a homeowner's insurance policy, that policy/company might have some things to say about current loads and building codes, as prerequisites for covering you.

In a rental property your ability to run mining rigs would depend on the lease, and the landlord's degree of vigilance in monitoring unusual electrical loads. If there's an incident or fire due to current-draw nobody noticed, it probably ends up in court. If you promised (by signing a lease with a relevant clause in it) that you wouldn't engage in excessive current-drawing activities, you lose that case pretty much instantly. Otherwise it'll be up to their side to prove that your negligence caused any losses or damages to the landlord's property, not to mention other tenants' property if they also sue you.

Re: Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

#132

It's hard to explain the levels of stupidity in this. - people trading 'coins' in the same way Pokemon / WWF kids trade cards. - thinking this is actually a long-term 'investment' strategy (well its idiots trading with each other ...) - to top it off, siphoning off electricity and giving a load of shitty excuses 'it could be like Seattle's. I don't know where to begin with this Bitcoin crap; it's gotten crazy that so…

>I don't know where to begin with this Bitcoin crap; it's gotten crazy that so many naive people are into this plopping their hard-earned money into a well-functioning sinkhole. George Soros said it best, " All of financial history is one lie and deceit after another, your job as a speculator is to get on the lie while it is being propagated and get off before everyone finds out". I feel like a lot of folks are going…

Is there a basis to this claim that Bitcoin is a lie?

Re: Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

#133

It's hard to explain the levels of stupidity in this. - people trading 'coins' in the same way Pokemon / WWF kids trade cards. - thinking this is actually a long-term 'investment' strategy (well its idiots trading with each other ...) - to top it off, siphoning off electricity and giving a load of shitty excuses 'it could be like Seattle's. I don't know where to begin with this Bitcoin crap; it's gotten crazy that so…

But... but, its math, and new. So it must be cool. Right? Plus when they talk about it they get to say 'crypto' which sounds hackeresque.

Humans are hilarious. Anyone here old enough to remember the dot-com boom with absurd business models, that, when questioned, got the response that you obviously just don't 'get it'.

Proof of energy consuming work as currency is a sure path to environmental catastrophe.

Re: Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

#134

It's hard to explain the levels of stupidity in this. - people trading 'coins' in the same way Pokemon / WWF kids trade cards. - thinking this is actually a long-term 'investment' strategy (well its idiots trading with each other ...) - to top it off, siphoning off electricity and giving a load of shitty excuses 'it could be like Seattle's. I don't know where to begin with this Bitcoin crap; it's gotten crazy that so…

People trade stocks like they do Pokemon but we call them 'shares'. Does that make it less like Pokemon than calling them 'coins'? Also, you trade coins all the time. It's called coins. Fiat coins.

Re: Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

#135
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know, but the main point of zoning laws is to prevent disturbances (like you can’t run a shop or a bar in a residential building for obvious noise and crowd concerns), but I don’t see why mining would be problematic. I’d rather have miners in the building rather than the drug-dealing kids that attract police every other week or so. Mining is very peaceful, you just install a piece of hardware and let it run (…

> Mining is very peaceful Until you factor in the risk of fire, environmental impact, and the fact that when bitcoin goes bust which will ultimately happen (nothing lasts forever), the county will be left holding the bag in a similar fashion to other major industries of old.

> risk of fire

Is it actually riskier than a resident living in the same place? I don’t think so.

A faulty mining installation would catch fire early on, and if that doesn’t occur then it’s mostly safe. A resident on the other hand would be using risky appliances every day (cooker, oven, heating, hair dryer, etc), which combined with the potential human error, seems like a bigger risk.

> environmental impact

How does zoning change this in any way? Whether you’re drawing tons of energy from a residential or commercial building doesn’t change the fact that energy could be damaging the environment. I’d argue that in this particular case though, the energy we’re talking about is from a hydroelectric plant and so fully renewable.

> the county will be left holding the bag

What would that “bag” be? Sure, the miners would pull out, but then the town would be back at the exact situation as before mining, albeit with an upgraded electrical and network infrastructure paid by the miners - I don’t see how this is a bad thing.

Re: Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

#136

It's hard to explain the levels of stupidity in this. - people trading 'coins' in the same way Pokemon / WWF kids trade cards. - thinking this is actually a long-term 'investment' strategy (well its idiots trading with each other ...) - to top it off, siphoning off electricity and giving a load of shitty excuses 'it could be like Seattle's. I don't know where to begin with this Bitcoin crap; it's gotten crazy that so…

The technology keeps advancing and once the efficiency reaches a place that some consensus network can become a democratized cloud (the SAFE network is a strong contender) then there will be actual value behind the tokens. For now bitcoin represents the belief in that dream.

Re: Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

#137

I like how it is done by the utility in San Francisco. Depending on the size of your place, and your main method of heating (electric or not), there are tiers setup (based on average weather in each month) where the first X kWh are the cheapest and correspond to what they think a dwelling of that size should need. Then the next Y kWh are about 30% more expensive, then after that there is a final tier which is 60% mor…

Don't most areas charge you less for the first X kWh? I understand that you have 3 tiers, but wherever I went there was always 2.

Re: Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

#138
post #97

It's hard to explain the levels of stupidity in this. - people trading 'coins' in the same way Pokemon / WWF kids trade cards. - thinking this is actually a long-term 'investment' strategy (well its idiots trading with each other ...) - to top it off, siphoning off electricity and giving a load of shitty excuses 'it could be like Seattle's. I don't know where to begin with this Bitcoin crap; it's gotten crazy that so…

I find myself hoping it implodes sooner rather than later. Purely selfish on my part - but I would like to be able to buy a new graphics card some day. I'm already dreading the insane scramble when Nvidia announces their new cards (likely this summer).

I last built a gaming rig in 2012 and just this January decided it was time to upgrade. It took me a bit to figure out why the hell a mid-range graphics card was $700 minimum.

Re: Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

#139

I like how it is done by the utility in San Francisco. Depending on the size of your place, and your main method of heating (electric or not), there are tiers setup (based on average weather in each month) where the first X kWh are the cheapest and correspond to what they think a dwelling of that size should need. Then the next Y kWh are about 30% more expensive, then after that there is a final tier which is 60% mor…

Why do you like it? To me it sounds stupid, it's the same electricity, it costs the same to produce and all other side effects effects like network load or pollution are the same too. Why first X units would cost less?

Even more idiotic is that it apparently depends on the size of your house, so if you have a larger home, you get more cheap electricity.

Re: Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington

#140
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know, but the main point of zoning laws is to prevent disturbances (like you can’t run a shop or a bar in a residential building for obvious noise and crowd concerns), but I don’t see why mining would be problematic. I’d rather have miners in the building rather than the drug-dealing kids that attract police every other week or so. Mining is very peaceful, you just install a piece of hardware and let it run (…

No noise??? You need some deafening loud whirring fans to cool the racks of miners.

But overall a building wall is pretty effective at shielding from that kind of noise.

I’d very much prefer a quiet white noise from the racks in the above unit than someone arguing at 3am or a stupid toddler screaming. You can easily tune out “stable” noise like the one produced by fans, but you can’t for irregular noise like people talking or someone dropping heavy stuff at night.

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