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Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by seibelj on Monday November 30, 2020 @01:02PM (#25256771)
If I build a geothermal plant in a place where no one needs power, and use it only to mine bitcoin, then only renewable energy is used, nothing is added to the climate. See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/13/how-iceland-be...

Using excess hydro power (china) or renewables like geothermal doesn't hurt the planet. Most bitcoin is mined using marginal energy that would be wasted otherwise. It has to be, as mining is an extremely cutthroat industry where burning actual fossil fuels is generally not cost effective.

Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by mdoms on Monday November 30, 2020 @01:29PM (#25257129)
Geothermal is neither renewable nor zero-carbon.
Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by seibelj on Monday November 30, 2020 @01:36PM (#25257215)
https://www.energy.gov/eere/geothermal/geothermal-faqs

> First, it's clean. Energy can be extracted without burning a fossil fuel such as coal, gas, or oil. Geothermal fields produce only about one-sixth of the carbon dioxide that a relatively clean natural-gas-fueled power plant produces, and very little if any, of the nitrous oxide or sulfur-bearing gases. Binary plants, which are closed cycle operations, release essentially no emissions.

> WHY IS GEOTHERMAL ENERGY A RENEWABLE RESOURCE?

> Answer: Because its source is the almost unlimited amount of heat generated by the Earth's core. Even in geothermal areas dependent on a reservoir of hot water, the volume taken out can be reinjected, making it a sustainable energy source.