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25 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei 16 Mar 2024 \ on: How many people would be interested in a mining territory? bitcoin

Hi Alex!

I love things to be compartmentalised, so a separate territory sounds lovely.

Besides empowering small-scale miners, I also hope you could pen articles that dispel the myth that BTC mining is environmentally harmful. I think this misconception is really damaging for the space. I got these facts from Messari’s Crypto Theses 2023 (see below). More such information would be great in the event that I need to defend Bitcoin’s honour. Haha.

N welcome to SN!

  1. Bitcoin mining produces a lot of e-waste annually, about the same amount as a country the size of the Netherlands. Only about 17% of this e-waste is recycled today.
  2. Bitcoin miners have been using wastes and stranded energy sources like flared methane, stranded geothermal energy, coal refuse, and even recycled waste tires. Hence, the narrative that Bitcoin mining is damaging to the environment may need to be relooked.
  3. The wasted energy from flaring in the U.S. alone is equal to 78% of the energy used by the global Bitcoin network in 2021. Repurposing flared energy towards Bitcoin mining would drastically reduce the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere.
  4. Bitcoin mining can help strengthen renewable energy grids as renewable energy is unpredictable and results in excess energy during off-peak times that results in energy producers curtailing that energy. Miners can be a constant energy buyer of last resort, increasing profitability for renewable energy operations.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @KaboomracksAlex OP 16 Mar 2024

I really hate arguments started and framed by people coming from a place of bad faith, which is most critics of Bitcoin mining's ecological footprint. My general response to them is to point out how bombing people funded by money printing is significantly more harmful and that they should explain to me how Bitcoin defunding the war machine is bad. Then if they don't want to have a real conversation, I go on a tangent about how Bitcoin will eliminate banks and how much wasted energy is caused with all these skyscrapers full of bankers, laundering money for cartels and terrorist groups.

  1. E waste is a genuine concern, but shouldn't be a reason to condemn Bitcoin mining. It's a macro problem that creative people can solve. You could say public education is a travesty because of E waste from all those terrible Chrome books they're giving kids today.

I think it's fair to take fair criticism but the people who lob nonsensical arguments about nothing need to be mocked and exposed for who they are.

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