For the First Time, a US City Has Banned Cryptocurrency Mining (businessinsider.com)

CaptainDork writes: The city of Plattsburgh, New York is imposing an 18-month moratorium on commercial cryptocurrency mining. The official reasoning for the moratorium is to "protect and enhance the City's natural, historic, cultural and electrical resources." Plattsburgh residents have seen skyrocketing electrical bills -- as much as $100 to $200 increases -- as a result of commercial cryptomining operations that mine for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, according to Plattsburgh Mayor Colin Read, who spoke with Motherboard. The city is taking action to protect its citizens from those rising electrical bills that the city of Plattsburgh says is caused by cryptomining operations.

It turns out that commercial cryptocurrency mining operations used up so much electricity that the city of Plattsburgh exceeded its allotted monthly budget of electricity. One single cryptocurrency mining operation called Coinmint used up around 10% of the city's allotted power supply alone in January and February, according to Motherboard. When its electrical budget was exceeded in January, the city had to buy electricity from the open market at a higher cost, which was distributed among its residents.

Comments

Proof by assertion is not much of a proof

[jd]

Ummm, no. Capitalism is not the best of the alternatives. I doubt many on Slashdot know of any alternatives. (Communism is not an alternative, it is a theory of control not currency. Barter is not an alternative, barter is simplified capitalism.)

If you can post ten different alternatives and state, with fallacy-free logic, why they're inferior, I'll accept your claim. If you make no effort, you are implicitly accepting that you really didn't look at any alternatives before posting that.