News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Venezuela arrests 4 bitcoin miners as trading highs continue. Parent comment

Re:Venezuela arrests 4 bitcoin miners as trading highs continue by hueving on Thursday January 26, 2017 @07:52AM (#13490893)
>With the instability of their currency I can understand why someone would want to use or buy bitcoin, but why mine there?

I suspect you answered your own question.

>the electricity subsidized enough to justify all the other headaches associates with running an operation out of there

People tend to behave rationally so based on the other prospects, which there aren't many of in Venezuela, Bitcoin mining must have become a useful source of income.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Venezuela arrests 4 bitcoin miners as trading highs continue by Bartweiss on Thursday January 26, 2017 @11:10AM (#13492505)
Bitcoin mining is actually a pretty fantastic option - it enables buying subsidized power very cheap, and then generating wealth that's very easy to convert to hard foreign currencies. So it's cheaper to do there than in the US, and more rewarding once you do it.
[ Parent | on HN ]