> Also, China's energy is cheap because 75% of their grid is powered by burning coal.
What? Most Bitcoin in China is mined using cheap excess hydro power, using coal power would most likely be uneconomical.
Re:Bitcoin is an energy arbitrage
by ForHackernews on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @11:43AM
(#15971147)
I keep hearing this notion repeated, but I've never seen a citation.
Do you have any evidence that:
a) Most bitcoin in China is mined using hydroelectric power.
b) That the generation capacity in question is "excess" (i.e. it would not have been put to productive use except for bitcoin mining)
It's also worth noting that damming rivers for hydroelectric power is enormously damaging to the surrounding ecosystem, even if they aren't carbon-emitting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_reserv...
Fully agree. Following suggest coal is still the main source of energy for Chinese miners.
https://qz.com/1055126/photos-china-has-one-of-worlds-larges...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-15/turning-c...
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/may/09/business/fi-scheme9
Worked great for Enron.
Also, China's energy is cheap because 75% of their grid is powered by burning coal. He doesn't mention climate change at all in this article.