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A comment on Power Plant Decides Mining Bitcoin Is More Profitable Than Selling Electricity. Parent comment

Re:Power Plant Decides Mining Bitcoin Is More Profitable Tha... by mngnt on Monday July 12, 2021 @01:51AM (#27807459)
What ires me over this one is that they rationalize it by thinking "it´s green energy, so it´s not a problem if we waste it". Meanwhile, for every megawatt they put into mining bitcoin, someone burns almost a half ton of coal. They can decide to put it on the grid to offset energy production from other sources, yet they decide to "waste it" on bitcoin. (As a sibling noted, it being wasted is a question of opinion)
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Re:Power Plant Decides Mining Bitcoin Is More Profitable Tha... by zarzavat on Monday July 12, 2021 @02:11AM (#27807572)
Perhaps. But perhaps it will create further economies of scale for renewable energy which will accelerate adoption of renewable energy. The more renewable energy that is used, the cheaper it gets, wasted or not.
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Re:Power Plant Decides Mining Bitcoin Is More Profitable Tha... by clavigne on Monday July 12, 2021 @07:13AM (#27809111)
The more renewable energy that is built, the cheaper it gets.

We now know that there is a cartel of US miners trying to create "clean" bitcoins (in part to appeal to Tesla and Musk) that will sell at a premium.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57240090

This could increase the pricing differential between clean and dirty electricity sources. However, most utilities don't care and so will buy the cheaper electricity, which means that there won't be a significant push to decrease fossil fuel based generation.

Unless demands from bitcoin mining start to strain clean electricity generation, there isn't really much reason to build more renewable capacity either. The kind of thing described in the OP (the repurposing of existing facilities) is likely to be the main result for the foreseeable future.

"Clean" bitcoins are just "greenwashed" bitcoins.

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Re:Power Plant Decides Mining Bitcoin Is More Profitable Tha... by Mehojid on Monday July 12, 2021 @07:17AM (#27809135)
We don't need to waste co2 to motivate investment in co2 saving technology.

We need less greed and a co2 tax which makes it undesirable to mine Bitcoin over producing energy which actually does something for our society.

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