Crypto assholes, always in search of the next bag-holder so they can funnel more wealth without having to do real work. And of course any wealth held in common is always a tempting target.
Comment on Why crypto could be green power's unlikely new best friend
poVoq@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
Ugh, that wins this month’s competition for the worst take on the whole internet.
Oh no, electricity is too cheap; let’s waste it on nearly the worst possible thing to keep prices up /s
grrgyle@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
SwingingKoala@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
I guess you don’t understand economics. Let solar power providers go bankrupt because there’s no buyer for their output.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
They can just invest in grid batteries and other storage options themselves. This is way more profitable that giving the electricity nearly for free to crypto-gamblers.
SwingingKoala@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
This is way more profitable
Cool, I agree. Let energy providers decide how to monetize their product in the most profitable way.
sonori@beehaw.org 5 months ago
Especially because in practice the massive cost of compute means that while low cost power is nice, it is always more economically sound from the miners prospective to run 24/7 to get the best return on investment. Indeed if you only ran your expensive data center for the few hours a day where solar production can even meet demand than you would never break even.
All of this means that miners have in practice demand all that power 24/7, and thusly demand either more storage or more fossil production than would otherwise be necessary.
If nothing else hydrogen is pitifully easy to produce from power, and current non-fossil hydrogen production is nowhere near enough to fulfill current demand, let alone what we’ll need in the next decades. Better yet, because the machinery needed to make hydrogen is so cheap compared to the electricity necessary, it actually makes financial sense to only run them when there is spare renewable capacity as compared to constantly.
vividspecter@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Especially because in practice the massive cost of compute means that while low cost power is nice, it is always more economically sound from the miners prospective to run 24/7 to get the best return on investment.
If you wanted a market solution, you could push wholesale power pricing onto miners so the cost potentially becomes too expensive to mine at times there isn’t renewable energy. Not that I think power should be wasted on crypto mining in any case.
ptz@dubvee.org 5 months ago
If only we had some, or even multiple, ways to store that excess for later and use it for something useful.
SwingingKoala@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
Tell me you know nothing about the current state of power storage technology without telling me you know nothing about the state of power storage technology.
ptz@dubvee.org 5 months ago
I’m fully aware grid-scale storage has its challenges, but something as simple as heating water a large boiler is more useful than mining crypto. Literally any other use is more useful to humanity than crypto.
SwingingKoala@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
That’s fine, it’s enough if others can see how willfully ignorant you are.
eskimofry@lemm.ee 5 months ago
This “tell me you … without telling me …” phrase often comes out of know-it-alls who at the same time as putting down others’ knowledge; come across as smug experts who have nothing better to say than to trot out this phrase.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 5 months ago
I think you need to update your thinkinghttps://octopus.energy/press/believe-it-or-watt-octopus-energy-customers-provide-108mw-of-grid-flexibility-in-first-saving-session-equivalent-of-a-gas-power-station/ - this is from a year ago, things have got bigger since then with more customers making cash through using their solar batteries in forced charge/discharge mode.