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A comment on Square: Bitcoin Is Key to an Abundant, Clean Energy Future. Parent comment

Re:Square: Bitcoin Is Key to an Abundant, Clean Energy Future by Luker88 on Wednesday April 21, 2021 @01:28PM (#26892727)
well, there's a lie in the middle though:

"Bitcoin miners as a flexible load"

I'm just going to guess that miners will not take seriously the idea of "you just have to mine only during the day"

The return of mining is much higher than the cost of coal, so this theory can only happen when throughout the whole world the average pool return is between the cost of coal energy and the cost of solar energy

At that point, nobody will be mining anymore probably

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Square: Bitcoin Is Key to an Abundant, Clean Energy Future by Taek on Wednesday April 21, 2021 @02:08PM (#26893315)
It's a tradeoff between capex and opex. Right now, the capex costs are so high that you are more or less forced to run miners 24/7, or you never make back the capex costs.

If bitcoin miners were more opex heavy in terms of Total Lifetime Cost, it could make sense to turn them off at night. As Moore's law continues to slow down, miners slowly are becoming more opex heavy.

[ Parent | on HN ]