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Cryptocurrency Miners Are Using Old Tires to Power Their Rigs (vice.com)

Christopher Malmo, writing for Motherboard: An entrepreneurial cryptocurrency mining company has just announced an unusual deal: it has partnered with a tire-based waste-to-energy company in the United States to power its mining computers. Standard American Mining and PRTI, a tire "thermal demanufacturing" company based in North Carolina, are powering graphics cards-based mining equipment to earn a range of alternative cryptocurrencies like Ethereum. Basically, they take used tires and heat them to a precise temperature, resulting in components like steel (from belted tires), carbon black, and a burnable fuel. That fuel is the energy source driving turbines to make electricity, which powers an onsite cryptocurrency mining farm. Taking advantage of an underutilized electricity source to run computers isn't groundbreaking, but the unusual set-up shows that cryptocurrency mining is now profitable enough to justify finding quite unconventional sources of cheap or new energy generation.

79 comments

  1. Aka "burning tires" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a splendid idea.

    1. Re:Aka "burning tires" by vtcodger · · Score: 2

      So, we're going to burn tires -- which are pretty much inert, and produce a variety of toxic chemicals and nasty particulates -- all in order to create something that is completely useless. My counterproposal is that the gubmints "print" units of cryptocurrency without bothering with all the computing overhead and gives them away to each and every person on the planet on any birthday year that is a prime number. That'd make about as much sense.

      I'll be turning 79 in a few months. 79 is a prime number. So let's get moving on this.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
    2. Re:Aka "burning tires" by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      From what I gather from TFA they where already burning the tires when the cryptominer company approached them about utilizing the otherwise wasted heat from the burning process.

    3. Re: Aka "burning tires" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This whole crypto currency is a bad idea.
      Its value is based on making it increasingly difficult to mine. Increasing difficulty leads to increased energy. Increased energy leads to increased wastage of natural resources and pollution.

      How does the footprint of crypto currency other currencies.

    4. Re:Aka "burning tires" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, it's a waste-to-energy plant. The heat was already being used to drive the turbines and generate electricity. They weren't converting tyres to syngas and then burning the syngas for the hell of it.

      What's more, this is blatantly clear not only from TFA but also from the summary.

    5. Re:Aka "burning tires" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you think they are just lighting fire to a pile of tires out behind the datacenter and putting a tank of water over the top of it?
      This is actually fractional distillation of a solid hydrocarbon. There aren't any particulates if the system is properly designed.
      They aren't "inert" but they are pretty damn stable, which is actually the problem. Tires don't go just go away. That's why there are tire dumps that are millions of old tires deep, just lying there.
      This is a good thing.

  2. REEEEEEEEE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They should be wasting that heat, not using it to mine bitcoins! Bitcoins are harmful!

    1. Re:REEEEEEEEE by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      The energy could go to supporting the local grid, using the computing power to process more useful calculations.

      The problem isn't that Bitcoins are evil, it is just they are in a bubble, and people are wasting time and money on them. 16k a bitcoin, and still growing... Why would I actually buy anything with a bit coin, its growth is too fast to be useful to spend on anything else.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re: REEEEEEEEE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You use your bitcoin to buy other, even more quickly growing alt-coins. Investing i. Bitcoin today is the equivalent of investing in mark andreesen's web browser in the early nineties.

    3. Re:REEEEEEEEE by Gavagai80 · · Score: 2

      Actually, one of the problems is that they're evil. They're explicitly designed to unnecessarily waste huge amounts of electricity. Might as well be a mad super-villain plotting to melt Greenland.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    4. Re:REEEEEEEEE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What I find amusing is that many of the same people who tell you how star-spangled awesome bitcoin is are whining about the planet dying in the climate threads.

    5. Re: REEEEEEEEE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Netscape, the browser so valuable you xant even remember uts name.

  3. Where the rubber meets the... by ZenShadow · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...Silk Road?

    Yeah, I got nothing.

    --
    -- sigs cause cancer.
    1. Re:Where the rubber meets the... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Crytpocurrency is literally a tire fire.

    2. Re:Where the rubber meets the... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      who knew it was so profitable to burn your world down

      captcha: smelts

  4. Interesting Concept by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the Obama-era EPA this company would have been regulated out of existence.

    In the Trump-era EPA it might be hailed as "MAGA" and allowed to pollute the environment.

    I guess there can be no "happy medium" between those 2 extremes....

    "Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.
    Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German, and it is all organized by the Italians."

    1. Re:Interesting Concept by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the Obama-era EPA this company would have been regulated out of existence.

      The company started in 2013, right in the middle of the Obama-era EPA.

    2. Re:Interesting Concept by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      In the Obama-era EPA this company would have been regulated out of existence.

      Bullshit. Gasification, a technology which was commonly used during WWII, was not only allowed but encouraged during the Obama Administration.

      In the Trump-era EPA it might be hailed as "MAGA" and allowed to pollute the environment.

      Pollute the environment, how exactly?

      I guess there can be no "happy medium" between those 2 extremes....

      Maybe, instead of guessing and remaining ignorant, you could actually learn something. The alternative is to remain willfully ignorant.

      Gasification

      The Fischer–Tropsch process

      "Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.
      Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German, and it is all organized by the Italians."

      That may be true but idiots abound, as you have so fervently pointed out.

      Please consider taking your idiotic politics somewhere where people will simply nod in agreement with you.

    3. Re: Interesting Concept by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You just pissed in his cereal quite a bit there.

  5. burning tires... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...is bad for the environment.

    1. Re:burning tires... by superdave80 · · Score: 1

      I usually take my old ones somewhere out in the woods or in a field remote...

      Well, I guess this isn't TOO terrible...

      ...and douse them with diesel and light them, and then get away.

      Wait, what? Why would you waste fuel, possibly start an out of control fire AND fill the air with toxic smoke? Just leave them there!

    2. Re:burning tires... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was trying to get rid of an old 13" CRT TV. Best Buy wanted to charge me something like $25.00 for them to "recycle it". I'm not investing $25.00 into a 20 year-old 13" CRT.

      I went out back behind their building and threw it in their dumpster.

    3. Re:burning tires... by zlives · · Score: 1

      yes, but how would AC then make an asinine statement.
      only AC can start forest fires.

    4. Re:burning tires... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was trying to get rid of an old 13" CRT TV. Best Buy wanted to charge me something like $25.00 for them to "recycle it". I'm not investing $25.00 into a 20 year-old 13" CRT.

      I went out back behind their building and threw it in their dumpster.

      it's way more fun to shoot em with an AR-15

    5. Re:burning tires... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, I'm not a gun-crazed Trumpist.

    6. Re:burning tires... by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      You're right, it is.

      But this is the normal tire recycling process. Instead of selling the syngas produced, they're burning it onsite in a turbine to produce electricity to run bitcoin miners.

      They're just making the recycling of tires more profitable.

    7. Re:burning tires... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Neither am I, t's just fun to shoot CRT's with a high powered rifle.
      Trump's a morn who's likely to make me even happier I own an AR
      Have fun when the shit hit's the fan

    8. Re:burning tires... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What?! When I get new tires the FUCKING TIRE SHOP disposes of the old ones.

    9. Re:burning tires... by Trogre · · Score: 1

      Please tell me you're joking.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    10. Re: burning tires... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Diesel isn't flammable so he must be joking.

  6. The very definition ... by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... of dirty money.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:The very definition ... by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      The very definition... of dirty money.

      Sounds like there's a market for washing it...perhaps with a washing machine...

  7. Re:I was sexual assaulted by a female coworker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks for mansharing.

  8. Re:I was sexual assaulted by a female coworker by nwaack · · Score: 1

    I think the middle portion was actually mansplaining.

  9. Hyperspeculation by ClickOnThis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We can blame this on hyperspeculation in the value of cryptocurrencies. When these currencies become insanely valuable, it becomes profitable to get energy to mine them from insane sources.

    Recall hyperinflation of the German Mark in the 1920s. At one point its value was so low that it made more sense to burn the notes than to use them to buy firewood. How long before it becomes profitable to burn actual bank notes to make electricity to mine bitcoin?

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    1. Re:Hyperspeculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Burn everything then. It's profitable.

    2. Re:Hyperspeculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How long before it becomes profitable to burn actual bank notes to make electricity to mine bitcoin?

      How about never? Bitcoin is getting massively more difficult to mine than in years past, just now it's so popular that more and more people are thinking of more and more crazy ideas of what do do with it.

    3. Re:Hyperspeculation by ShamblerBishop · · Score: 2

      How long before it becomes profitable to burn actual bank notes to make electricity to mine bitcoin?

      I think we've found our new economics 'Nobel' Prize winner here.

    4. Re:Hyperspeculation by ClickOnThis · · Score: 2

      I think we've found our new economics 'IgNobel' Prize winner here.

      FTFY ;-P

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    5. Re:Hyperspeculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When these currencies become insanely valuable, it becomes profitable to get energy to mine them from insane sources.

      This doesn't follow at all. Getting energy from insane sources only ever makes sense if those sources are cheaper, and novel sources only become cheaper when they are used in volume. So this implies that Bitcoin mining uses enough energy that you can amortise capital costs, and only running costs matter. The elephant in the room is the vast inconvenience. The obvious desperation to increase profits by small fractions of a % show that bitcoin mining is really not very profitable. If it was, you could use any old energy source, regardless of cost.

  10. Re:I was sexual assaulted by a female coworker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Suck it up, buttercup.

  11. Profit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Surely if they need to resort to these kinds of tricks to save money that shows that mining is NOT profitable. This isn't a surprise, we've known for some time the only way to profit from mining is if you can somehow externalize your power bill.

  12. Re:This is starting to sound like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Troll much?

  13. All hail the Springfield Tire Fire! by tlambert · · Score: 3, Funny

    All hail the Springfield Tire Fire!

    Cryptocurrency embiggens us all! They're the most cromulent currency!

  14. My counterproposal... by denzacar · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...is a #cryptocurrency called #AwesomCoin which would be powered by labor of small children harvested from impoverished villages.
    Preferably working in a combination of coal and uranium mines - and oil rigs. Oil is needed cause uranium won't burn as easily on its own.
    Also, where possible, whale and dolphin fat would be added to the mix - for flavoring.

    From time to time, in order to increase the value of #AwesomCoin through magic, some of the children would be offered as human sacrifices to Kali, Quetzalcoatl, Beelzebub, Donald Trump and Santa.
    Not necessarily in that order.
    #AwesomCoin mining facilities would be built on a large swat of land presently used as rain forests, in cooperation with Russian and South American criminal cartels and oligarchies.

    #AwesomCoin would be combined with an app where one could purchase and kill real life kittens through a variety of means - from sitting on them until they are crushed to throwing them against an oncoming train (other methods to be added).

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    1. Re: My counterproposal... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      (*Throwing investment dollars*)

      (*Removing all legal obstacles to fast-track this venture*)

      -- Republicans

  15. DIY Cryptocurrency Mining... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you want mine your own cryptocurrency, you need a motherboard with 19 PCIe 1X slots to plug in 19 GPUs and a couple of 1200W PSUs.

    1. Re:DIY Cryptocurrency Mining... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, you post this on every bitcoin thread. I guess you must benefit financially from this somehow.

  16. This is just Thermal Plasma Gasification by Noishkel · · Score: 1

    While as the source article says in more detail this company does have a novel new process for this, but what they're doing here is hardly new. It's just thermal plasma gasification with another name. I'm not against such a thing myself, assuming they are property filter the waste gases that these systems release. But at the end of the day here this is just a novel way for make a big of money on disposing of old tires. It usually cost money to dispose of these tires in a landfill.

  17. So essentially, burning tires by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not a tree hugger by any stretch, but for you city slickers who've never seen in it person, burning tires is a nasty, nasty thing. They go for hours, produce a *massive* amount of thick, black and highly toxic smoke, and stink to high hell.

    I see the summary conveniently avoids using the term "burning" ("thermal demanufacturing"? PLEASE!) but that's what this is. This is a terrible idea, especially when it's done in the name of "mining cryptocurrency".

  18. Re:This is starting to sound like... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 2

    > Religion (Particularly Christianity, but also Islam) and Corporatism are literally leading us to the extinction of the Human species.

    Hyperbole much?

    /sarcasm Oh Noes! Those terrorist Christians -- they are out murdering everyone! Wait, what?

    HOW _exactly_ are the religious people causing the extinction of the human species again???

  19. 20,000 stories per day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let me know when it hits 20,000 stories per day, then I’ll invest.

  20. Just what we need, tire fire power by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    Want to swipe some Bitcoin?Just follow the tower of oily black smoke and go in with guns blazing..

    Here in Arizona, we use old tires to make an asphalt replacement that is longer lasting and quieter to drive on than the traditional material.

  21. Proof of Work sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can't we just use Proof of Space, Proof of Stake, or any of the other alternatives that do not require the unnecessary burning of Tires,Trees,Coal,

    1. Re:Proof of Work sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. Just for that, I'm going to propose yet another alt-coin. It'll be called MarketCoin. This one might be considered a bit esoteric, because it depends, not on the "democratic" process of everybody producing lots of hashes to attach an effectively immutable timestamps to transactions, but instead upon one's personal ability to manipulate the value of publicly traded assets: "Proof-of-I-am-rich" I'm not going to say where MarketCoin comes from or what shenanigans its developer is planning along-side, but when it is transacted, the MarketCoin trader encodes data which unambiguously validates his transaction directly onto the public market by manipulating the prices of a set of stocks, commodity prices, and futures at the time of the transaction. MarketCoin transactions will, of course, be easily validated, as all you'd need is decode the publicly listed prices of the assets involved. Obviously, MarketCoin transactions will work a bit faster and more reliably for those who have greater ability to influence the market. But even for the very poor, there are algorithms which can make derivations from low-frequency variations. And of course, penny stocks can also be quite democratic-ish.

  22. Re:This is starting to sound like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because they are proping up the excuse that our actions have no consequences, that a savior will come save us, and we can pollute all we want and it doesn't matter. Its also weaponizing our racism, and hurting everyone in the process.

  23. Wake me up by Drunkulus · · Score: 1

    when they can turn tires into Magic the Gathering cards.

    1. Re:Wake me up by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Drunkulus, wake up!

      Those people are burning tires to mine Bitcoins to buy Magic the Gathering cards!

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  24. How is a burning tyre like a Bitcoin? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They are both on fire and deflating

  25. Thermal recycling of tires by rfengr · · Score: 1

    It was Mr. Reinhardts invention. As a kid in the 80’s, got a tour of his operation after the great “Tar’ Far’” in Virginia. https://www.google.com/amp/amp...

  26. Re:I was sexual assaulted by a female coworker by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    "for"?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  27. Cryptocurrency will propel humans into space ... by basicprimitives · · Score: 1

    Cryptocurrency will propel humans into space exploration. We can built solar plants on the moon and transmit back only calculations :-) Stupid idea yea?

  28. Re:I was sexual assaulted by a female coworker by Lanthanide · · Score: 1

    There was a high profile court case about this in New Zealand:
    ==============
    The man who allegedly told Christine Rankin he felt uncomfortable when she moved as he could "distinguish her breast", today told the Employment Court he did describe her dress as "indecent" and "offensive".

    Mark Prebble, head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, was giving evidence for the Crown on the eighth day of the Department of Work and Income boss' damages case.

    In describing his first meeting with Mrs Rankin in April 1999, Mr Prebble told the court:
    "I was surprised that she had a very low-cut neck line. I thought it was revealing to the point it was indecent, and I found it offensive."

    He said he was embarrassed by her low neck line, which was "improper for senior staff".
    ==============

    She wasn't re-appointed to her role after her fixed term contract ended. She alleged sexism and political interference, and lost her case.

  29. Enough power for Bartertown? by Babel-17 · · Score: 1

    Or is it too dirty for even that resource barren place.

  30. You seemed intelligent, but then you began typing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You DO realize that the secular humanist nations have been the most toxic on Earth, don't you?

    There's a reason the Chernobyl (nukes with no containment) plant was in the officially atheist Soviet Union, along with all the old nuke subs that were just abandoned to rust and rot and leak in the arctic. Look at ANY of the old geopolitical entites that used to be east of the "iron curtain" and you find horrendous environmental messes. In the (culturally, somewhat) Christian west, the environmental movement took off and many were already being as environmentally clean as they could reasonably be to "protect God's creation". Sure, there were some environmental problems in the west, but most were by reckless cost-cutting secular businessmen, NOT the Amish, or a bunch of fundamentalist Baptists, or a pack of Lutherans operating family farms. It's not the Catholic church or a pack of Episcopals or Presbyterians who are out trashing the planet on the path to wildly obscene profits... it's usually a bunch of secular investors and executives, often based in big liberal secular cities calling those shots.

  31. facepalm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now you just proved you know nothing of substance about Christianity. Your view of religion generally, and Christianity in particular, appears to be a cartoon version you got at the comic book store.

    At the very core of Christian beliefs is that our actions absolutely have consequences, and that the saviour you refer to will not only save but also judge (and according to very high fixed standards, NOT on a curve), that racism is wrong and hurting people is wrong.

    It's as though somebody announced authoratatively that the purpose of science and the internet was to enable people to do better astrology charts and molest children....

    wow. don't even know how to properly illustrate how crazy far off the map you've gone.

    igniorance on a billboard

    just, wow.

  32. Re:This is starting to sound like... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 2

    What you are describing is NOT Christianity, nor Islam.

    > excuse that our actions have no consequences,

    The Bible teaches The Law of Karma:

    * Matthew 7:12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
    * Matthew 26:52 "Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."
    * Galatians 6:7-9 shares, "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap"
    * 2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

    > that a savior will come save us,

    Irrelevant.

    > and we can pollute all we want and it doesn't matter.

    They are _completely_ twisting Genesis 1:26 "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

    The second chapter of Genesis commands man to be a "good steward" of the earth.

    * Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

    The Mosaic Law teaches the same thing.

    * Numbers 35:33 You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

    Peter says the same thing

    * 1 Peter 4:10 - As every man hath received the gift, [even so] minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

    The Bible _ends_ with the same message:

    * Revelation 11:18 "The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth."

    Next time, try READING the Bible, you might actually learn something.

  33. Economics fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    " the unusual set-up shows that cryptocurrency mining is now profitable enough to justify finding quite unconventional sources of cheap or new energy generation."

    It doesn't show anything of the sort. It shows that (a) cryptocurrency uses a huge amount of power and (b) that it's only marginally profitable. If it was hugely profitable you could use any old energy source. That a marginally cheaper energy source is worth pursuing shows that profitability is not that great to begin with.

  34. Re:Cryptocurrency will propel humans into space .. by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    ha, more sunlight falls on the ground than a thousand earth civilizations could use. it might propel the destruction of deserts, though after this current bubble pops bitcoin and "cryptocurrency" (really just virtual game tokens) might be unpopular for quite a while.

  35. Not profitable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "the unusual set-up shows that cryptocurrency mining is now profitable enough to justify finding quite unconventional sources of cheap or new energy generation"

    No, in fact it shows that it is now *unprofitable* enough that it's not worth plugging in your miners in the mains, and have to find cheaper ways.

  36. Re:I was sexual assaulted by a female coworker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ah, I see why you find this upsetting. You're attracted to other men.

    It would be like a man wearing biker shorts in the office that are tight enough to show off my private parts.

    The only explanation I can think of for some guy's choice of clothing showing off your privates is if seeing that man in those clothes give you an erection.

    Not that there is anything wrong with this, but I think you are getting upset about what women wear because you haven't come to terms with your own sexuality. You need to accept that you are a gay man and embrace your sexuality, and then you probably won't care about what your female co-workers wear.

  37. Mining ISN'T profitable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't it quite the opposite. The profit margin of mining is so low that they have to search out any insane source of cheap energy. Because if they had to pay full electricity prices they would go bancrupt.