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23 sats \ 10 replies \ @kepford 3 Jul 2023 \ on: Daily discussion thread
Over the weekend while setting up a server rack in my garage I was listening to WBD podcast with the Gridless guy. I recommend listening to it. Anyway, it got me thinking again about all the crazy stuff that is gonna be tied to bitcoin mining in the future. I'm not innovating here but I know some haven't heard these ideas.
Anything that needs waste heat (heat that is used for something else) will be migrated from existing heat sources to ASICs. We already see the early examples but it is going to expand. Right now I've heard of heating, water heaters, spas, and pools. I'm imagining a future where your fridge mines, your AC/Heat mines and industrial facilities that need to heat material will be massive miners.
I can even see appliance manufacturers offering rebates/discounts for ASIC based appliances where they mine to their own pools and pay for the discount/rebate with the hashrate.
What other things can you imagine moving to ASIC heat?
Listening to these guys talkk about Africa reminds just how out of touch most people in the west are with the global south. I had the privilege to visit Africa many years ago. It changed my world view in a deep and profound way. I would love to go back. While many in the west mean well with their concern about climate change and energy use they are very misguided. This conservation based approach to energy will condemn the global south to many more decades of poverty. Energy is prosperity and human flourishing. Climate change will not kill the number of people that global poverty currently does. It is great to see bitcoiners spreading hope in places like Africa. It is much better to do something that talk and try to persuade westerners.
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Yup I talked to guy at a construction conference who worked in South Africa and he shared how they were building all these green microgrids. The western laptop class thinks it solves the burning of fuel thus lowering carbon emissions but the grids were very unreliable. Each grid is designed differently making operation and maintenance a nightmare.
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One thing the guys mentioned was how many of these people have never had electric service. One dude in the village might have a car battery and charge money to charge their phones for them. So imagine the risk when starting a power company when your potential customers have very few uses for the power. Very risky but high possible return as well.
Imagine not have a refrigerator, lights, and other appliances. It is hard for us to imagine these things in the west. We take so much for granted.
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Agreed
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I dunno about the fridge...since it produces heat...from removing it from inside the box. the other examples sound good though.
A fridge is a source of waste heat.
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Yeah I don't really understand how refrigerators work. It seems counter intuitive. I need to look that up because I think I've been misunderstanding how they work.
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Refrigerators rely on the phase change of specially formulated refrigerant from a liquid to a gas. The compressor pressurizes and super-heats a gas, which, when pushed out the back of the refrigerator, releases a bunch of heat into the air. This temperature drop at such high pressure causes the gas to liquefy. This liquid boils at a very low temperature, so as it enters the refrigerator it immediately absorbs "heat" and boils into a gas on its way back to the compressor. This boiled gas, which "heated" as it went through the refrigerator, is what makes everything else cold. The air that touches these coils become cold as they heat the refrigerant.
I thought that would come out shorter. I hope it makes sense to you. The important thing to understand is that the refrigerant (a dangerous, regulated chemical) boils at a temperature well below freezing, but by compressing it with a pump, you're able to achieve the pressure needed to turn it into a liquid, which pretty much immediately boils.
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Thank you, that warranted a 100 sat zap.
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You can power any thermal pump using thermal energy. There is refrigerators that you have to light up the burner to make them run. They use that heat to drive a reverse cycle which then pushes the heat out of the box. Pretty much passive, you just add heat, and the pump uses it to move the heat out of the box. It could be a geothermal spring or a mining farm.
bugger me amazon puts a lot of tags on their links. Always use "get clean link".
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