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Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands

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  Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2016-09-13 06:51 -0400
    Re: Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands Adrian Caspersz <email@here.invalid> - 2016-09-13 17:47 +0100
      Re: Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-09-13 14:43 -0400
    Re: Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands "Tim Hueber" <no.spam@mail.com> - 2016-10-24 21:06 -0500
    Re: Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2016-10-27 11:51 +1100
      Re: Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-10-27 09:13 +0300
        Re: Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2016-10-27 23:35 +1100
          Re: Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-10-27 16:13 +0300
      Re: Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-10-27 15:47 -0400

#11996 — Bitcoin mining in China’s Tibetan highlands

In China’s Tibetan highlands, the bizarre world of bitcoin mining
 finds a new home
http://wapo.st/2cIAdYV



Across Tibet, China is busy pulling mineral resources out of the
 ground; there is even a gold mine close by. But here in Kongyu,
 most of the mining is virtual. It is here because of extremely
 cheap hydropower, cheap wages — and perhaps because Chinese
 entrepreneurs have a knack for the business.

For a while, bitcoin was effectively kidnapped by drug dealers,
 becoming the anonymous payment backbone of the Silk Road, a black
 market in illegal drugs that flourished on the dark Net — until
 the FBI closed that market down in 2013.

Today it is an industry that is starting to come of age, but whose
 center of gravity has shifted to China, and away from utopian
 dreamers toward venture capitalists.

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#11997

On 13/09/16 11:51, RS Wood wrote:
> In China’s Tibetan highlands, the bizarre world of bitcoin mining
>  finds a new home
> http://wapo.st/2cIAdYV
>
>
>
> Across Tibet, China is busy pulling mineral resources out of the
>  ground; there is even a gold mine close by. But here in Kongyu,
>  most of the mining is virtual. It is here because of extremely
>  cheap hydropower, cheap wages — and perhaps because Chinese
>  entrepreneurs have a knack for the business.
>
> For a while, bitcoin was effectively kidnapped by drug dealers,
>  becoming the anonymous payment backbone of the Silk Road, a black
>  market in illegal drugs that flourished on the dark Net — until
>  the FBI closed that market down in 2013.
>
> Today it is an industry that is starting to come of age, but whose
>  center of gravity has shifted to China, and away from utopian
>  dreamers toward venture capitalists.
>

Search for "chinese bitcoin farm" on youTube. Thousands of videos of 
electrons going to waste...

-- 
Adrian C

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#11999

On Tue, 13 Sep 2016, Adrian Caspersz wrote:


> Search for "chinese bitcoin farm" on youTube. Thousands of videos of 
> electrons going to waste...
>
But they can use the heat to warm up housing, and since Tibet can be a 
cool place, less power needed for cooling the equipment down.


   Michael

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#12244

On Tue, 13 Sep 2016 05:51:43 -0500, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:

> In China’s Tibetan highlands, the bizarre world of bitcoin mining
>  finds a new home
> http://wapo.st/2cIAdYV

> For a while, bitcoin was effectively kidnapped by drug dealers,
>  becoming the anonymous payment backbone of the Silk Road

Hm, I take issue with their usage of ``kidnapped''. This would imply that  
the currency as a whole was used (against its ``design''?) solely by drug  
dealers for some time. Yet, the point of Bitcoin is as a value transfer.  
We can of course argue the semantics and usage of a currency, but I would  
think that Bitcoin is in this case functioning as expected; that the users  
of Bitcoin were using it to purchase drugs is beside the fact.
Of course, not everyone is as reasoned as one would hope. Just as someone  
may have a vested interest in equivocating PGP with terrorist  
communications there are undoubtedly groups that would prefer to have  
Bitcoin known as the ``criminal's currency''. So I suppose I should thank  
the Washington Post for attempting to help Bitcoin's public relations.

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#12251

On 13/09/2016 8:51 PM, RS Wood wrote:
> In China’s Tibetan highlands, the bizarre world of bitcoin mining
>   finds a new home
> http://wapo.st/2cIAdYV
>
>
>
> Across Tibet, China is busy pulling mineral resources out of the
>   ground; there is even a gold mine close by. But here in Kongyu,
>   most of the mining is virtual. It is here because of extremely
>   cheap hydropower, cheap wages — and perhaps because Chinese
>   entrepreneurs have a knack for the business.
>
> For a while, bitcoin was effectively kidnapped by drug dealers,
>   becoming the anonymous payment backbone of the Silk Road, a black
>   market in illegal drugs that flourished on the dark Net — until
>   the FBI closed that market down in 2013.
>
> Today it is an industry that is starting to come of age, but whose
>   center of gravity has shifted to China, and away from utopian
>   dreamers toward venture capitalists.
>

One shudders to think just how much energy is being wasted this way.

Sylvia.

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#12252

Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address>:
> One shudders to think just how much energy is being wasted this way.

Probability theory arose out of gambling. Maybe some number-theoretical
breakthroughs will emerge from bitcoin mining.

Besides, bitcoin mining is much more environment-friendly than, say,
gemstone mining.

   <URL: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_green_lante
   rn/2010/08/something_old_something_new_something_borrowed_something_gr
   een.html>


Marko

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#12253

On 27/10/2016 5:13 PM, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
> Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address>:
>> One shudders to think just how much energy is being wasted this way.
>
> Probability theory arose out of gambling. Maybe some number-theoretical
> breakthroughs will emerge from bitcoin mining.
>
> Besides, bitcoin mining is much more environment-friendly than, say,
> gemstone mining.

Which is, I agree, and equally pointless activity. But I suspect that 
the Bitcoin mining has been added to the other, rather than substituting 
for it.

Sylvia.

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#12254

Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address>:
> Which is, I agree, and equally pointless activity. But I suspect that
> the Bitcoin mining has been added to the other, rather than
> substituting for it.

Bitcoins are pointless as long as there is no intrinsic value tied to
it. However, its value is probably generated by the *expectation* that
it will eventually acquire intrinsic value. That will happen when some
country in the world starts accepting it as legal tender.


Marko

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#12255

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

On Thu, 27 Oct 2016, Sylvia Else wrote:

> On 13/09/2016 8:51 PM, RS Wood wrote:
>> In China’s Tibetan highlands, the bizarre world of bitcoin mining
>>   finds a new home
>> http://wapo.st/2cIAdYV
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Across Tibet, China is busy pulling mineral resources out of the
>>   ground; there is even a gold mine close by. But here in Kongyu,
>>   most of the mining is virtual. It is here because of extremely
>>   cheap hydropower, cheap wages — and perhaps because Chinese
>>   entrepreneurs have a knack for the business.
>> 
>> For a while, bitcoin was effectively kidnapped by drug dealers,
>>   becoming the anonymous payment backbone of the Silk Road, a black
>>   market in illegal drugs that flourished on the dark Net — until
>>   the FBI closed that market down in 2013.
>> 
>> Today it is an industry that is starting to come of age, but whose
>>   center of gravity has shifted to China, and away from utopian
>>   dreamers toward venture capitalists.
>> 
>
> One shudders to think just how much energy is being wasted this way.
>
I thought that's one reason it wsa in Tibet.  They use the heat to keep 
things warm, and don't have to spend money on air conditioning.

The cost went up as more bitcoins "mined".  So someone who got in early 
needed relatively little resources, and raked it in, while later it took 
more and more power to "mine" increasingly fewer bitcoins.

For a while, the local Craig's list would have ads from people selling 
equipment for the "mining", so I guess they were already getting out of 
it.  But those are mostly gone.

I guess it's not unlike the Yukon gold rush (where Trump's Grandfather had 
a business, and Swiftwater Bill Gates was involved in the peripheral 
stuff).  The people who were there early just scooped the gold up, they 
didn't make a whole lot but it wsa good compared to other means of making 
money.  But later, it became increasingly hard to get the gold out of the 
ground, so it was mostly over within a couple of years. But big mining 
outfits could come along, buy up the claims, and make decent money as a 
return, but  that worked because they had the tools to do it in a larger 
scale, which was needed at that point.

   Michael

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