pull down to refresh
21 sats \ 2 replies \ @nerd2ninja 9 Jun 2022 \ on: Bitcoin Miners to Start Paying Higher Cost for Energy Use in Chelan County in July bitcoin
This is good for decentralization. Hear me out.
Bitcoin mining will, through market forces, push the mining difficulty as high as it can without paying more for electricity than value earned from mining.
A law that taxes miners more for energy, will result in smaller miners who can't be identified as miners (i.e. not larger companies) because they can't tell the difference between AC, water heaters, space heaters, christmas lights etc.
Except there are other areas like West Texas where the large commercial miners are welcome.
This doesn't decentralize mining, this essentially consolidates it into fewer and fewer remaining areas where the low cost electricity is still available. This is Chelan County's loss and West Texas' gain.
Now what they didn't mention was the cost per kWh. If the mining op was paying 0.035 per kWh and now they will pay 0.045, well that 4.5 cents per kWh is still competitive globally. So they could just eat it and keep on hashing.
But if I were looking where to put a mining op today, a jursidiction that does this would not make the cut even if it was cheaper simply because you can't know what they will do next.
reply
You could see it that way too, but overall, what it doesn't mean, is that the hash rate will be down for long.
reply