Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#71

Post by EGreg » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

I warned about this a few weeks ago, and people were skeptical. But sadly “in retrospect it is inevitable”. Where is the flaw?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26220992

Let me refine my prediction to describe the transition period. Bitcoin will actually deepen inequality in the world, by robbing the third world countries of electricity first, and no one in first world countries will care. The politicians of the third world countries would be paid off similarly to how Nestle or CocaCola buys up lakes and pollutes them. And privately owned infrastructure and lakes will fall even faster.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#72

Post by _Microft » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

trixie_ wrote: post #63

Idea to solve the crypto energy problem - sell space heaters as dual purpose crypto miners. People need space heaters. They buy them, but they also mine crypto (as a free byproduct of the space heating). The number of crypto mining space heaters out there dilute the value of dedicated mining so much that people don't bother with it anymore. Even buying the space heater to make money from mining crypto doesn't make th…

Heat pumps are approximately three times as efficient as electric heating.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#73

Post by shawnz » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #21

shawabawa3 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's at least planning to switch over to proof of stake though

How's that going? Been hearing that it's happening "really soon now" for at least 3 years.

The wheels are in motion now. The first block was proposed on the proof-of-stake system on December 1st.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#74

Post by PretzelPirate » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

ddeyar wrote: post #41

user-the-name wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethereum is as inefficient as Bitcoin, just at a slightly smaller scale.

It looks like the nft scene on ethereum is starting to migrate to tezos, because gas is cheap there and it is PoS since the beginning. I wonder how that would influece the ethereum commmunity.

Small migrations to other chains doesn’t affect the Ethereum community. Multiple cheap NFT solutions exist on Ethereum (such as Immutable X) that keep NFTs in the larger Ethereum ecosystem instead of isolating them on a less used chain.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#75

Post by tgv » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 1:47 PM UTC

EGreg wrote: post #71

I warned about this a few weeks ago, and people were skeptical. But sadly “in retrospect it is inevitable”. Where is the flaw? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26220992 Let me refine my prediction to describe the transition period. Bitcoin will actually deepen inequality in the world, by robbing the third world countries of electricity first, and no one in first world countries will care. The politicians of the t…

The flaw is greed.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#76

Post by k_sze » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 1:53 PM UTC

dgellow wrote: post #59

eejjjj82 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This crypto experiment keeps yielding more interesting results." I completely agree. I don't pay attention to a lot (or any) online economic circles, but I'm astounded at the pushback of high profile economists (Krugman, et al) against the shear novelty of the moment for their discipline. Regardless of whether or not someone "believes" in bitcoin, the reality of the times is that cryptocurrencies are creating fantas…

These “experiments” have real life consequences on ”subjects” who never agreed to be part of it. We should maybe create a crypto-country where crypto-currencies fanatics are free to experiment all of this on themselves instead of all of us… (it’s a joke, please don’t create a crypto country!)

You need to have bigger ambitions. Let's turn the whole planet into a crypto experiment. We can change the name of the planet Earth to ... Crypton.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#77

Post by Cthulhu_ » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 1:54 PM UTC

Uberphallus wrote: post #26

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #6

I've never heard of Abkhazia before, so I had to look it up. It's a partially recognized state, part of Georgia [0]. There's even been a war in 1992-1993, after the collapse of the USSR [1]. Sometimes I'm still surprised of my ignorance about important facts that happened during my lifetime. Anyway, the next question for me was: why is electricity so cheap there, and should I assume it's cheap 24/7, and therefore gen…

I've been there during my urbex days. Frozen conflict zone, not unlike Transnistria, South Ossetia or Nagorno Karabakh. The border is militarized, except the Georgian side which doesn't seem to consider Abkhazia a threat. Lots of abandoned infrastructure because the native Georgian population was killed and/or fleed, and hasn't been harnessed for some reason. Abkhaz cross the border daily to buy basic stuff from Geor…

SD cards should be pretty easy to hide as well, unless they do X-rays on your shoes and the like I guess?

Could put a micro SD card in a SIM card slot in your phone maybe.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#78

Post by Cthulhu_ » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 1:55 PM UTC

trixie_ wrote: post #63

Idea to solve the crypto energy problem - sell space heaters as dual purpose crypto miners. People need space heaters. They buy them, but they also mine crypto (as a free byproduct of the space heating). The number of crypto mining space heaters out there dilute the value of dedicated mining so much that people don't bother with it anymore. Even buying the space heater to make money from mining crypto doesn't make th…

There's a few companies that already do that, they rent out servers / processing power (probably via a spot market) which are in people's homes chooching along. The spot market will always be loaded because at some point one of the many cryptos will find it worthwhile.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#79

Post by pas » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 1:56 PM UTC

_Microft wrote: post #72

trixie_ wrote: post #63

Idea to solve the crypto energy problem - sell space heaters as dual purpose crypto miners. People need space heaters. They buy them, but they also mine crypto (as a free byproduct of the space heating). The number of crypto mining space heaters out there dilute the value of dedicated mining so much that people don't bother with it anymore. Even buying the space heater to make money from mining crypto doesn't make th…

Heat pumps are approximately three times as efficient as electric heating.

That needs good insulation first, or am I missing something? Usually space heaters are warmer, but less efficient. Heat pumps are great if you have time to warm up the space but if it's insulated like an open field, you'll be always cold.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#80

Post by pas » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 1:57 PM UTC

em500 wrote: post #47

georgyo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the alternative? Raise energy costs for people who may not be able to afford it because of of a few abusers?

I'm curious why electricity is so cheap there. If it's caused by subsidies, the alternative is obviously replacing the subsidies by income transfers. If it's not caused by subsidies, there must be a better way to profit from their competitive advantage of being able to produce electricity cheaper than anyone else in the world.

Unenforced, uncollected bills. Also many mining ops just steal electricity. Why can folks get away with it? Because it's a failed state.