Russia wants to ban Bitcoin-mining. For the most bonkers reason ever.

[DetlefK]

Disclaimer: RT is not a trustworthy news-outlet and should be handled with care.
https://www.rt.com/business/401956-bitcoining-mining-russia-ban/

Mining Bitcoins (actually: generating them) costs a lot of CPU-power. That's why people use custom-made high-performance computers to mine Bitcoins.

Russia now wants to introduce a law to ban Bitcoin-mining in flats and apartments.
Because the additional electricity-consumption and generated heat supposedly can lead to fires.
And that's unfair to Russia:

"Virtually all computer capacities are not Russian, bitcoin itself is not allowed inside the country. Accordingly, the mined bitcoin tokens go to some external exchanges. All that remains inside the country is the waste of electricity. Quite a doubtful efficiency for the Russian economy," the expert said.



--------------------

You are not allowed to earn some foreign money on the side because your 10 PCs rob Russia of precious electricity.

EDIT: The electricity that is used to run the PCs, that's not Russia's electricity. It's the electricity of the guy who pays the electricity-bill.

[dalton99a]

1. Russia doesn't have enough oil to generate the electricity required

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Meh - for once, they're doing the environmentally right thing

Using energy to get into a pyramid scheme is ethically wrong. Even if you're taking money off foreigners who you assume can afford it.

[hunter]

3. Russian homes and apartments have every sort of wiring...

... from Soviet era fuse boxes to European modern.

If the idiot BitCoin miners need more power they ought to be the ones who pay for infrastructure upgrades.

Progressive electricity charges would do the trick. People who don't use much electricity might pay ten cents a kilowatt hour, heavy users might pay fifty cents a kilowatt hour and that would pay for new power plants and infrastructure improvements.

I'd be a little upset if my BitCoin mining neighbors were causing brownouts in my house or apartment.

Fuck 'em.

My own internet habit wastes less than 20 watts from my electric meter.