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Re:Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing? by cdiddy2 on Thursday May 12, 2022 @03:28PM (#31359128)
I agree with your point on economic value.

But on other uses of the energy you can't really do these things,

desalinization - in the middle of the country with no salt water plus inconsistent energy

metal smelting - doesn't work with rapid turning on/off

direct air carbon capture - doesn't work with rapid turning on/off

Bitcoin miners can be turned on/off quickly and don't require much infrastructure except an internet connection. How would you ever run a big plant with unpredictable times/days that it could actually run?

Re:Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing? by Mehringotio on Thursday May 12, 2022 @04:43PM (#31359938)
Exactly! Bitcoin incentive to NOT make it viable.

Instead of putting a Powerline there or building a smelter or something else, Bitcoin is easier and makes more money quicker.

This is not a good thing right now this is still bad. And as soon as you have Bitcoin mining there, no one wants to underutilize it because it is inefficient. Now your miner is motivated to run even more and get more money

Do you really believe a Bitcoin miner would accept being shut down for most of the day? Nope.

Re:Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing? by cdiddy2 on Thursday May 12, 2022 @05:32PM (#31360361)
Do you really believe a Bitcoin miner would accept being shut down for most of the day? - yes, as the hardware cycles have slowed down this has become more and more viable to use old hardware some of the time.

Instead of putting a Powerline there or building a smelter or something else, Bitcoin is easier and makes more money quicker. - I assume there is already a powerline to any wind/solar farm. The issue is the negative priced electricity. If you can't compete with a bitcoin miner that is always seeking the cheapest electricity regardless of location then maybe your project isn't economically viable. Its not like miners have a monopoly, just agree to pay more than they are willing to pay

Re:Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing? by Mehringotio on Friday May 13, 2022 @03:00AM (#31364263)
Of course it might not be economical viable.

Bitcoin is not the solution it's part of this problem because it's decoupled from that market.

It pushes into a market which is bound by different rules.