I know it sounds insane but this is not a joke, Texas pays millions to bitcoin miners to not eat up electricity during high demand days. That’s a real policy that exists bsky.app/profile/juli... - ThreadSky

adamserwer.bsky.social • 542 days ago

I know it sounds insane but this is not a joke, Texas pays millions to bitcoin miners to not eat up electricity during high demand days. That’s a real policy that exists https://bsky.app/profile/julie.barrettmanor.com/post/3k6whcd3dgu2v

Reposted from Julie Barrett

North Texas, too. Except when they tell us to raise the thermostats so they can give more $$ to bitcoin miners. It's hot everywhere here.

Comments

snatcherofcastles.bsky.social•542 days ago

Can anyone name a type of mining that's not shit?

problematicotter.bsky.social•542 days ago

Our idiot governor invited them to setup shop *while the bitcoin market was crashing*. Just unforced error after unforced error with him, and yet he'll win another term because he's constantly on Fox News.

lproulx.bsky.social•542 days ago

The only way to make fiat from Bitcoin.

hurricanexyz.bsky.social•542 days ago

Oh my god lol

Gee have we considered, instead of doing this, banning bitcoin mining by legislation?????

chessercat.bsky.social•542 days ago

Grossly, the Fed is discussing a stable coin, or was when the market was hot and I was dating a crypto bro (oops 🫣)

I’m hoping a positive outcome of the whole SBF fraud is better regulation of the whole scam.

cuil.world•542 days ago

I think crypto bros are constantly talking about how world governments are JUST about to adopt their silly electronic drug trafficking tokens as currency because it props the value up

hurricanexyz.bsky.social•542 days ago

Kill it with fiiiiiiire

andres.rive.ro•542 days ago

There’s no real talk of a federal crypto currency or coin. Most of the governors and chairman have said we already have a digital currency, the US Dollar

hurricanexyz.bsky.social•542 days ago

That's right

benp.bsky.social•542 days ago

Matt Levine wrote a great piece on this.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-08-10/you-can-sell-the-bitcoins-you-don-t-mine

sarahdarerlittman.bsky.social•542 days ago

It’s not that I don’t trust you but that sounds so far fetched I had to fact check and OMFG it’s TRUE. Did TX give them big tax breaks to come there, too?

djdynamic.ca•542 days ago

This must be that fiscal responsibility they're always talking about!

Hey Abbott, think I found some government spending you can cut....

djdynamic.ca•542 days ago

Also typing that out reminded me of the "Hey Abbott!" guy from Men in Tights and I hope people in Texas use that for memes lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c9mlOrDhc4

satyric.bsky.social•542 days ago

That was a reference to a popular catch phrase from the 50s (I am not, fortunately, that old but I’ve seen their movies)

djdynamic.ca•542 days ago

I had no idea! I thought it was just a weird joke lol

satyric.bsky.social•542 days ago

If you’ve never seen this it was the most popular thing in the country for a good while

djdynamic.ca•542 days ago

I just watched it and it is obviously WAY better than my foggy memory of some random arcade owners version lol, thank you for sharing this with me! They play off each other SO well lol

djdynamic.ca•542 days ago

omg I've never seen this but I've HEARD it because when I was in, like 7th grade, the guy who owned the local video arcade was obsessed with it and would tell it constantly lol

ckshowalter.bsky.social•542 days ago

Even better, they nearly threw us into rolling blackouts because there was too much wind generated power in South Texas and it was overloading the lines.

adamserwer.bsky.social•542 days ago

https://www.tpr.org/technology-entrepreneurship/2023-09-06/texas-paid-a-bitcoin-miner-more-than-30-million-to-power-down-during-heat-wave

aaroncollom.bsky.social•542 days ago

this feels like its extortion or blackmail but i bet texas law makers are happy about it

holgate.permanent.red•542 days ago

drone strike

mikevincent.bsky.social•542 days ago

Yeah it’s utterly insane

mfsteve.bsky.social•542 days ago

Please don't catch anymore pokemons we are sweltering

sababausa.bsky.social•542 days ago

Riot, already on a heap of subsidies, occupies the abandoned remains of what was once the largest aluminum smelting plant in the world. They produce nothing and get paid to sit idle

The top industry on the American Right is: grift

debj11.bsky.social•540 days ago

Just feels corrupt. Texas government in general seems corrupt.

mikeinco.bsky.social•542 days ago

Pretty sure ERCOT is a private company, not a state entity.

laughlax.bsky.social•542 days ago

Private yes, but not in the "owned by shareholders" sense (it's non-profit). Much of how it runs is dictated by state law and by the state Public Utilities Commission, and its board is appointed by the governor. So ERCOT is not technically a state entity, but you could argue it's quasi-government.

jaysondoesmusic.net•542 days ago

Getting subsidies and tax breaks from....? This is textbook garbage private companies working with govt officials they've bought to make the people eat the loss

chessercat.bsky.social•542 days ago

It’s like a quasi-governmental trade association because of how it interacts with federal, state, private, and local entities. It’s super weird.

ERCOT and other independent system operators, like CAISO & NYISO, are 501(c)4 nonprofits made up of the companies that want to buy/sell wholesale energy.

mikeinco.bsky.social•542 days ago

I worked there for quite a few years so you can trust me when I say I know what they’re all about and who oversees them. And I’m still right. 🤪

chessercat.bsky.social•542 days ago

** the subsidies are for the purchase of wholesale electricity, which is fine for a factory that employs a lot of people, which these do, and also produces widgets, or at least an amazon warehouse FFS

They’re just giving them a discount on rolling coal at an exceptionally high rate.

chessercat.bsky.social•542 days ago

My favorite aspect is that it’s mainly companies relocating from China, which was sick of crypto miners (and I assume crypto bros) having such a huge drain on its grid and told them to take a hike.

https://slate.com/technology/2021/06/bitcoin-mining-china-texas-energy.html

chessercat.bsky.social•542 days ago

Each coin takes 2,000 kWh to produce. The Fed calls that more than the average household consumes in 2 months. It’s easily more than I use in a year.

https://www.dallasfed.org/research/swe/2022/swe2202/swe2202g

jjinandtonic.bsky.social•542 days ago

One of the few unarguably good things Xi has done is driving bitcoin miners out of the country.

thatpetewoods.bsky.social•542 days ago

They invited the bitcoin miners to Texas to use “surplus” power during low usage periods. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that using that “surplus” power drives up the price at times it would usually drop.

thatpetewoods.bsky.social•542 days ago

So Texas pay miners to drive up prices and then pays the miners in credit to chill when there’s high demand. Miners then use the credit to pay for the power they used to drive up low-demand period prices. It’s diabolical.

futuremonkey.bsky.social•542 days ago

I'm ACKSHUALLY kinda upset that I am not a psychopath. It's the main thing that's stopping me from getting filthy rich.

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