Ted Cruz says Bitcoin will stabilize Texas electric grid–here’s why he’s wrong(arstechnica.com)
arstechnica.com
Ted Cruz says Bitcoin will stabilize Texas electric grid–here’s why he’s wrong
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/10/ted-cruz-says-bitcoin-will-stabilize-texas-electric-grid-heres-why-hes-wrong/
7 comments
The author makes 2 arguments, one is correct, the other is wrong.
1) the infrastructure built for bitcoin wouldn't necessarily be weatherized, which was why much of it failed earlier this year. True.
2) Texas has a system to change market prices for wholesale electricity, so price scales up when demand is high / supply is low. Author seems to know this but comes to the wrong conclusion. Most/residents businesses choose flat rate pricing so demand doesn't drop when supply does. BTC miners would absolutely choose variable pricing (which is cheaper most of the time, and reduce mining when prices spike, freeing up that power for the essential parts of the grid.
I think you're putting the miners on the wrong side of the balance sheet there. The point of the plan is for miners to come in and build their own power plants that usually support only the mining operation. Then in times of need, the miners are compelled to sell the energy being generated to the grid. But the variable/flat pricing structure is on the consumer side. Since the mining operations will be on both the supplier and consumer sides for energy that they produce, they aren't subject to flat/variable pricing.
Sounds exactly like Balaji Srinivasan idea
I don’t like Ted Cruz, but he might be right about this. The article makes a model with today’s prices, which are hard to validate — I suspect if we start mining at grid level energies it is going other places… The economic incentives are clear and have not changed since 2009. What may happen is what was predicted many years ago.
If mining was doing "sink a bunch of power from renewables when the grid can't absorb them", that would be acceptable.
The problem is that mining is turning on fossil fuel plants which would otherwise be unprofitable to sell electricity from--which is disastrous for the environment.
Everything coming out of Cruz's mouth should simply be assumed to be wrong, deceitful, and/or harmful in any combination.
The problem is that mining is turning on fossil fuel plants which would otherwise be unprofitable to sell electricity from--which is disastrous for the environment.
Everything coming out of Cruz's mouth should simply be assumed to be wrong, deceitful, and/or harmful in any combination.