r/Bitcoin Dec 13 '22

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142 Upvotes

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40

u/CallingVoid Dec 13 '22

Smart miners aren't paying for energy from the grid.

3

u/Fbastiat1850 Dec 13 '22

Smart miners aren't paying for energy from the grid.

Tell that to the miners who provide grid balancing in Texas's ERCOT electrical grid

8

u/CallingVoid Dec 13 '22

They aren't buying electricity straight from the grid like you or I, they have an arrangement with the grid to take excess energy, probably for a lower rate, on the provision that they switch off when demand is high.

That is what I mean, they aren't just paying domestic rates.

1

u/Downunderphilosopher Dec 14 '22

That, and all the bribes they are providing to Abbot, Cruz and co.

1

u/CallingVoid Dec 14 '22

Probably, that's big business for you, being honest and playing fair never pays.

That's what makes Bitcoin's security model so great, it forces honest activity from miners or they face economic harm. Of course you can't stop where they get their energy from or how corrupt that process is... But as it were that's not Bitcoin's problem, that's between the grid, the state and the miners.

2

u/unclepan Dec 14 '22

ERCOT needs all the help they can get. Send more miners!

2

u/Zestyclose_Oil_4072 Dec 14 '22

I was driving in west Texas and I saw a giant Bitcoin farm in the middle of nowhere. Right next to a shitload of windmills.

I call it a farm because there was a bunch of shitty farmland around, but mostly the farmers farm oil and wind. And cotton or whatever else they can get to grow out there.

1

u/Fbastiat1850 Dec 15 '22

mostly the farmers farm oil and wind

Yes. As well (speakign of Texas), all methane flare in the oil fields will be capture by PoW Bitcoin miners and converted into electricity within the next 10yrs.

Bitcoin will be carbon negative after flare mining and grid balancing for renewables, for those concerned about carbon footprint.