8 votes

El Salvador has started mining Bitcoin using the renewable energy from volcanoes

@Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻:
First steps...🌋#Bitcoin🇸🇻 pic.twitter.com/duhHvmEnym

9 comments

  1. [2]
    Gaywallet
    (edited )
    Link
    I mean, at least it's renewable, but I can think of a lot of better uses for that energy. However, if it's excess energy being used and they don't have the infrastructure to transport or store it,...

    I mean, at least it's renewable, but I can think of a lot of better uses for that energy. However, if it's excess energy being used and they don't have the infrastructure to transport or store it, all power to them.

    16 votes
    1. rkcr
      Link Parent
      Even if the electricity is renewable, the materials are most likely not.

      Even if the electricity is renewable, the materials are most likely not.

      9 votes
  2. [2]
    babypuncher
    Link
    Every time I hear about someone using renewable energy to mine bitcoin, all I can think is that the very same energy could be used to displace some actual dirty energy on the grid. Dumping that...

    Every time I hear about someone using renewable energy to mine bitcoin, all I can think is that the very same energy could be used to displace some actual dirty energy on the grid. Dumping that energy in the void so techno-libertarians can play with their we-totally-swear-it's-a-viable-currency-and-not-a-speculative-investment monopoly money just seems like such a waste.

    14 votes
    1. skybrian
      Link Parent
      You’re making an assumption that energy is one big market and that energy anywhere could easily be transferred to be used somewhere else. That’s not really true. Energy gets moved around using oil...

      You’re making an assumption that energy is one big market and that energy anywhere could easily be transferred to be used somewhere else.

      That’s not really true. Energy gets moved around using oil tankers and pipelines and power lines, which place limits on what you can do. Oil prices tend to move in sync because oil can be moved worldwide (with a lag) and can also be stored, but electricity markets are only regionally connected and there are plenty of remote places that are off the grid.

      So there’s a legit question of whether it’s worthwhile building a pipeline or a power line to a remote area. That question has to be answered with numbers.

      That said, what El Salvador is doing looks very sketchy, and the cryptocurrency boosters you see talking about this stuff often haven’t done the math either.

      4 votes
  3. [5]
    j3n
    Link
    I get that "renewable energy" is really just a catch-all term for "electric generation not derived from fossil fuels", but am I the only one who reads the headline and immediately thinks that...

    I get that "renewable energy" is really just a catch-all term for "electric generation not derived from fossil fuels", but am I the only one who reads the headline and immediately thinks that energy from volcanoes is the ultimate form of non-renewable energy?

    2 votes
    1. MimicSquid
      Link Parent
      By that scale, wind energy isn't renewable either. Eventually the sun will burn out, the earth will cool, and the atmosphere will still. But it's not on a time scale we're worried about, is it?

      By that scale, wind energy isn't renewable either. Eventually the sun will burn out, the earth will cool, and the atmosphere will still.

      But it's not on a time scale we're worried about, is it?

      10 votes
    2. [3]
      Fal
      Link Parent
      Isn't geothermal an extremely renewable resource since it draws from the heat inside the earth's crust itself, so its renewable as long as the earth doesn't spontaneously explode?

      Isn't geothermal an extremely renewable resource since it draws from the heat inside the earth's crust itself, so its renewable as long as the earth doesn't spontaneously explode?

      4 votes
      1. skybrian
        Link Parent
        I read about it recently. Wikipedia has an article aabout the earth’s internal heat budget. Most geothermal heat is due to radioactive decay, which probably does get lower over time but very...

        I read about it recently. Wikipedia has an article aabout the earth’s internal heat budget.

        Most geothermal heat is due to radioactive decay, which probably does get lower over time but very slowly. There is more heat than that, so some is thought to be primordial heat left over from when the earth formed. But the calculations are very rough with large error bars.

        Also, in any given area, after the heat is removed it has to be replenished from below, and the earth is a good insulator so there is a limit on how fast it can be extracted.

        But anyway, it’s probably close enough to renewable at the time scales we’re talking about.

        9 votes
      2. j3n
        Link Parent
        It's extremely long term, but the heat inside the Earth is fixed and slowly radiating away. Eventually it will be gone and the core will solidify leading to all kinds of fun effects. This probably...

        It's extremely long term, but the heat inside the Earth is fixed and slowly radiating away. Eventually it will be gone and the core will solidify leading to all kinds of fun effects. This probably doesn't matter on the timescale of human civilization; nonetheless it has much the same (lack of) renewability as fossil fuels. It just lacks the greenhouse gas side effects that fossil fuels have.

        3 votes