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Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

eurasianet.org

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Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#171

Post by g42gregory »

I am not getting the sense that people, who talking about global warming, will really follow up with the actions, when it concerns their wallets or their quality of life. Look at the number of the private jets at the COP26. Look at number of Hummers that Arnold Schwarzenegger (whom I love btw!) owns. He talks climate change but drives a Hummer.

By the same token, people with money, progressive or otherwise, will continue to invest in crypto as it is the highest yielding asset on the market. Kazakhstan became the 2nd largest crypto miner, after the US. It looks like they are balancing the demand for the energy supply between crypto miners and the rest of their customers. This sounds like a very reasonable thing for them to do.

We will see more regulations concerning the crypto currency and I think it's a good thing for the market. The regulations will ensure continuous growth and mainstream acceptance of crypto.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#172

Post by trevyn »

coldpie wrote: post #155
matheusmoreira wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you think I'm a multi-level marketer? Is it even possible to prove otherwise? I just happen to believe in that project and like to talk about it. Am I supposed to not talk about this stuff? I don't particularly care that energy is being spent on cryptocurrency. What I hate is the fact that energy is being spent on bitcoin in particular. The energy is not supposed to be wasted, it's supposed to buy us something . N…

> I'm totally open to new ideas. Find a better hobby =/ This casino is not worth boiling the world.

The evidence seems pretty strong that the world’s gonna get boiled anyway, fwiw.

It’s fine to hope that things might be different, but making decisions and plans based on that hope seems…imprudent.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#173

Post by baybal2 »

dpierce9 wrote: post #100
baybal2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All big scale BTC mines buy at industrial prices. You cannot run a mine bigger than what your wiring can support in your apartment. None of them is using the subsidised residential rate.

Residential rates are not typically subsidized, they are regulated and billed at cost plus. The only thing that can be called a subsidy is a delay in raising costs. When local utilities are required to supply at a fixed price and that fixed price is less then cost + fixed profit margin, then they are losing money. The remedy for this is to ask their regulators to change the fixed price to account for both the higher…

It is https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Kazakhstan/electricity_pr...

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#174

Post by bufbupa »

booleandilemma wrote: post #151

I’ve brought this up before and I was downvoted for it[0], but I don’t think I made my point clear enough last time. People seemed to think I was questioning the soundness of the algorithm, but that’s not what concerns me. I was talking about the concept of bitcoin itself. What I’m concerned with is what if the true point of this thing we have been led to call “bitcoin” is to destabilize countries. What if it’s a new…

Sorry that I don't know how to present this more constructively, but you sound pretty tin-foil-hat-y. You argument seems to be just "I don't understand this thing, so doesn't that mean someone could have introduced it out of malice". As the replies from your previous comment stated, try reading about the block chain protocol. It's definitely easier to understand than the whole of our fiat currency system.

In my opinion, crypto is largely a ponzi scheme, so rest assured I'm not saying this out of love for bitcoin. But I also don't believe there's some master-mind illuminati behind the scenes orchestrating this intentionally. This is a 100% open and transparent protocol that people are supporting out of fear of existing societal power structure. If you have a good reason to suspect someone of manipulating crypto for some greater purpose, present your evidence and let us evaluate it. But vague paranoia about some puppet master's scheme sounds a bit like crying wolf to me.

We as a society just haven't gotten good at pricing in externalities (eg: carbon emissions) to consumer goods yet. If crypto miners were providing enough societal value to afford the excessive consumption of energy, then I think everyone would be praising crypto as the next industrial revolution -- improving quality of life for everyone! But instead, I think most people recognize it as siphoning value from many for the benefit of a fortunate few.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#175

Post by vimy »

The crypto hate here is ridiculous. Every thread about crypto is the dropbox thread x 10.

Unless you want to live in a dictatorship where the government dictates what is and isn’t a useful use of energy, the constant bitcoin electricity usage hysteria is a waste of everyone’s energy. :-)

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#176

Post by matheusmoreira »

DonHopkins wrote: post #122

Don't ever let any Bitcoin or NFT shills get away with lying to you that their cryptocurrencies and CryptoKitties and Digital Pet Rocks run on renewable energy. And never let any of those get-rich-quick pyramid scheme shills get away without forcing them to openly admit that even though they're burning coal, wasting electricity, destroying the environment, causing climate change, cancer, and heart disease, they simpl…

I wonder how much coal China burned to fabricate all the computers necessary for you to post this and for everyone else to read it.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#177

Post by pjc50 »

fastball wrote: post #142
duxup wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If mining is a net positive for Kazakhstani miners, doesn't that make the country better off? How does that work?

If mining is profitable that means electricity is costing less than the proceeds of mining. If these miners are Kazakhstani, presumably they are spending the majority of these gains in-country, or are paying taxes on the proceeds. As such this should be a net gain for Kazakhstan, since I assume the majority of people buying the crypto the miners are generating are not in fact Kazakhstani. This doesn't seem complicate…

> If these miners are Kazakhstani

Article implies a lot have moved from China.

> presumably they are spending the majority of these gains in-country

Unevidenced assumption, that they are even spending the gains at all - it's crypto, after all.

> or are paying taxes on the proceeds

Unevidenced assumption, probably false for crypto libertarians.

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#178

Post by yo_nigger »

DonHopkins wrote: post #122

Don't ever let any Bitcoin or NFT shills get away with lying to you that their cryptocurrencies and CryptoKitties and Digital Pet Rocks run on renewable energy. And never let any of those get-rich-quick pyramid scheme shills get away without forcing them to openly admit that even though they're burning coal, wasting electricity, destroying the environment, causing climate change, cancer, and heart disease, they simpl…

on_level? ?know if honk else username scream then doesn't matter the decibels in your talk unless you declare the level you are on for sure on your level, things seem bleak but on another level, things seem honk

what ground do you stand on? when you scream your thoughts whats the foundation your knowledge adors? how far do you go to orgenize us all? shall we reached deeper so you can question your soul?

what do you think happen on 911? whatever they say where do they aim their informational canons? this, we hide away

get real man, you sound like a puppet on a string lacking the substance, a barrel dropping a mountain woosh woosh look at this guy scream

come front, you scared little weasel and repeat after me those words "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for Banks" get-rich-quick pyramid scheme are out of snacks

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#179

Post by trevyn »

sushisource wrote: post #170
rfd4sgmk8u wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, never. Bitcoin will be PoW forever. PoS is and will never have the same security properties of PoW. Its bad for decentralization, its bad for censorship resistance, and its bad for the free world.

Bad for the free world? That's a bit of a fucking stretch. I think you can pretty comfortably argue the power and e-waste situation created by PoW is much worse for the "free world" than a slightly stronger consensus mechanism for a speculative value store.

I haven’t dug into this, but I do intuitively sense some risks with PoS. Can anyone recommend a good, thoughtful writeup of the specific risks?

Re: Kazakhstan to restrict crypto miners amid power shortages

#180

Post by graeme »

ravenstine wrote: post #137

Why not create incentives to mine crypto with solar? Lower or eliminate any sort of capitol gains taxes on crypto mined with solar, make solar panels tax free for companies that mine crypto, and crypto would not only go up in value but the solar industry would also be supported. Oh yeah. The Federal Reserve and the central banks need fiat.

Why would you want to give crypto a selective subsidy vs subdizing solar for all? (If solar subsidy is your goal)

Picking winners doesn’t work very well

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