Even with subsidies, there's an effective price floor.
Even with renewable energy there's an opportunity cost - you can sell it back to the grid. Plus the fixed costs of buying the solar panels and mining equipment in the first place.
Re:Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling
by lossolo on Sunday August 26, 2018 @03:14PM
(#17847340)
> Even with renewable energy there's an opportunity cost - you can sell it back to the grid. Plus the fixed costs of buying the solar panels and mining equipment in the first place.
In many cases this doesn't matter, as it 's being paid by someone else. Millions of teenagers mining crypto on their GPUs, their parents pay for electricity, what about enthusiasts? They will mine even if price is higher than the value of the bitcoin, there are bitcoin mines that steal electricity from the grid etc.
And as I wrote before, this is self regulating mechanism, difficulty is adjusted every 2016 blocks. Less miners? then less power needed to mine the block, which means less resources/money needed to mine the block. Price of electricity dosen't matter.
So, "The value of bitcoin will forever be propped up by people stealing electricity."
Well, it all depends on price of electricity in your region. If you mine for almost free using solar/other renewable energy/your energy is subsidized by government then you will still make profit while miners in high cost electricity regions will stop mining. If they stop mining difficulty will drop, which means you will get more money for mining.
This is self regulating mechanism, as long as bitcoin will have value it will be profitable to mine for someone.