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0 pointslmm5y ago0 comments

> (most mining occurs on the grid)

The post you were replying to is disagreeing with this. Power made available for extremely low cost next door to a hydroelectric dam etc. might be technically "on the grid" in that there is some connection between that town and the rest of the grid, but if the long-distance transmission lines are already at maximum capacity (which is usually the case, otherwise power wouldn't be any cheaper in those towns than anywhere else) then that surplus power is de facto not available to the rest of the grid.

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kevingadd5y ago· 1 in thread

Are you suggesting that the vast majority of mining operations are running on direct/dedicated links to local power generation facilities? I can understand the argument that some significant fraction are, but there's still a huge amount of mining that would by necessity have to happen on the grid. If consumers or small-time business owners get involved in crypto they have no choice but to use the grid. The costs involved in building out dedicated lines like that are not trivial, so I'm kind of skeptical that it would be widespread enough to make on-grid mining a rounding error. Do you just mean that in terms of revenue, all the big-earning miners are hooked directly up to dams?

lmmOP5y ago

> Are you suggesting that the vast majority of mining operations are running on direct/dedicated links to local power generation facilities?

Not necessarily in the sense of having their own physical wire, but if the path from the power generation facility to where the mining is taking place doesn't take up any long-distance transmission capacity (which is why power in those towns is cheap) then it's de facto the same thing.

> there's still a huge amount of mining that would by necessity have to happen on the grid. If consumers or small-time business owners get involved in crypto they have no choice but to use the grid.

If they want to participate as full nodes, sure. Maybe they shouldn't. And even if they are, they're going to be an insignificant fraction of mining volume.

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