That's because you have not looked around very much and did not understand what would have been done with this gas had it not been used in a generator to power that $hitcoin-mine. As to not looking around I'd say the malversations around all those (soon-to-be) warring nations far eclipse whatever can be achieved by a single funny-money-mine in the backwoods of the Republic of Texas. As to not understanding what would have happened had they not hooked up that generator to the gas line there it should be enough to have a look around an oil extraction area at night where the darkness is often shattered by bursts of reddish light coming from flares. Flares which burn natural gas (and whatever else happens to come up in gas form). Reddish light due to the incomplete combustion inherent in the technology and the gas mixture. Here that gas is burned in a generator which both provides for a more complete combustion as well as produces power to run that mining rig. The net result is less air pollution due to better combustion of spill gas, less light pollution due to the absence of flares plus whatever money that mining operation brings in. There's plenty of flares to go around for mining operations, including those at refineries - have at it. Any $shitcoin mined this way is not mined using power which would otherwise have gone to more useful applications.

And the energy from these flares can't be used for actually useful applications, because?

Patiently waiting for your proposal for a better solution. Actually the whole industry is and has been waiting for a less wasteful solution since well before Bitcoin existed.

In the future maybe we can just switch to nuclear fusion and everything will be better. In the real-world of the present, this is a good and practical solution for reducing greenhouse gas and finding a higher value purpose for otherwise waste energy.

What’s not to like at least until you or someone else invents something better?

Oil extractors should be charged for the pollution they make. This will encourage them to build the infrastructure to collect the natural gas. https://www.energymonitor.ai/tech/cleaner-fuels/oil-industry...

Using it to make Bitcoin is only currently economically viable due to a combination of underregulation of oil extractors (reducing the cost of the pollution) and underregulation of cryptocurrencies (increasing the profit from mining), with both types of regulation being held back by Texas legislators.

ND has passed legislation to incentivize flare mitigation (e.g. https://www.ndlegis.gov/assembly/67-2021/documents/21-0935-0...) that aims for the carrot rather than the stick, though I anticipate that at some point in the near future we will see more jurisdictions go for the stick.

>> And the energy from these flares can't be used for actually useful applications, because?

> Patiently waiting for your proposal for a better solution. Actually the whole industry is and has been waiting for a less wasteful solution since well before Bitcoin existed.

Leave the gas and the oil in the ground until it's economically feasible to utilize both for useful applications.

Some things that aren't useful applications:

1. Burning it just to get rid of it.

2. Cryptocurrency mining (i.e. wasting huge amounts of irreplaceable resources for ideological reasons to maintain a simple transaction register that can be done far more cheaply and efficiently in other ways).

Fair point. Maybe we start by asking Germany and Western Europe to stop funding Putin’s invasion of Ukraine?

I realize that these decisions have consequences and it might be preferable to mine bitcoin with flared gas that we can then sell to Germany so they are not reliant on Russian gas.

I am not well-enough informed on the subject to claim to understand all the consequences of such a move.

How are you so confident that your suggestion is best for all stakeholders?

"Actually useful" ideas for you: produce fertilizer, produce PVC pipe, produce ammonia, produce hydrogen and harvest CO2 tax credits. Get started!

Because Ted Cruz is now getting in on the cryptogrift, acquiring Bitcoin and tweeting about Bitcoin while voting to keep it underregulated.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/88gvmv/ted-cruz-bitcoin-boos...

I am interested in learning what bitcoin regulations you would find useful. And have you submitted any BIPs for your ideas? https://github.com/bitcoin/bips

Examples:

1. Sanctions against wallets to make scams less lucrative.

2. Carbon offsets for mining.

Neither will be accepted by BIPS, but the public demands it, so regulations will happen.

Define actually useful applications. Also, maybe it is possible to do so? Furthermore, given that this possibility exists - which I'm pretty sure it does - I see a glorious task ahead for you. Yes, you, dear keyboard warrior, are given the mission to develop such an actually useful application to teach those hicks with their $hitcoin mine running off gas which would otherwise have been flared off how wrong they are. Design and build that actually useful application, install it and show the world.

Until such a time I'd say they did quite well with their mining thing, given the circumstances.

At current prices of natgas and BTC, it is economical enough to use flare gas to mine, but not enough to connect it to the grid.

Because there ain't no money in it.