Private-equity firm revives zombie fossil-fuel power plant to mine bitcoin
May 2021, Ars Technica
Can't beat that headline though.
Image credit: A picture of a crypto mining farm in Nadvoitsy Russia, stolen from the internet.
This is now the first example of a power plant, coal or otherwise, that's dedicated exclusively to mining. Consider that the choke point for mining coin is ultimately the cost of electricity, and if you're generating your own electricity, well then you've got a good deal going on. The upstate New York power plant, called Greenridge, will produce 500 MW of mining capacity by 2025, and last year they mined 1,186 bitcoin at a cost of $2,869 per coin.
People are so busy talking trash about this, they haven't had time to recognize it's actually an improvement in efficiency, since the power isn't being transported anywhere.
I thought I had something to say about the relative climate impact of crypto, until I asked some very rudimentary questions. Here's some answers:
A person in the United States is consuming somewhere around 30 kilowatt hours per day.
The Gaza Strip is at the bottom of the list at 0.0002 kWh per person per day.
Somalia, currently in famine, is at 0.05 kWh.
Guatemala, just chosen at random, is at 6.7 kWh.
Kazakhstan, where much of the Chinese mining has moved since the crackdown, at 13.5 kWh.
A bitcoin transaction, on the other hand is worth about 1,500 kWh.
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