Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Coal Power Plant is Being Reopened For Blockchain Mining (cnet.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the this-is-fine dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Sure, you could mine bitcoin on that old PC in your garage, or you could use a whole power station to do it. That's the idea behind the Blockchain Application Centre -- an Aussie tech initiative that will see one of the country's now-shuttered coal-fired power plants reopened to provide cheap power for blockchain applications. It's the work of Australian tech company IOT Group, which has partnered with local power company Hunter Energy on the project. According to The Age, Hunter Energy will recommission the Redbank power station in the Hunter Valley, two hours drive north of Sydney. Once the power plant is reopened (expected to be completed within 12 months), it will offer wholesale or "pre-grid" power prices to blockchain companies, allowing them to do things like mining cryptocurrencies, without having to pay retail power prices.

7 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Yay Coal Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So not onlly are we going to waste tons of electricity, we're going to pollute now too.

  2. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is so pointless. All that energy, and all those computing resources, for nothing. What the hell is wrong with people?

    1. Re:Why? by bungo · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I fell the same way about soccer and it's world cup.

      I mean, millions of people watching a small number of men kicking around a ball.

      If only everyone in the world would just do whatever I think is sensible, and stop wasting resources.

      Why the hell do people have the freedom to make their own choices in life?

       

      --
      "The best part? I became an ordained minister while not wearing pants." -- CleverNickName
  3. God damn it by jwhyche · · Score: 5, Insightful

    God damn it, this fucking insanity has to stop. Not only has it impacted my ability to upgrade to a bitch'n graphics card but now they want to poison the air I breath for this shit?

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    1. Re:God damn it by WindBourne · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have to say that I am disgusted by this.
      We really need to stop ALL new coal plants, or re-openings, from occurring. That should include ALL NATIONS.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    2. Re:God damn it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you think the reactions to this are based on left/right leanings, you may need to check your inner humanity. Polluting the every loving hell out of the Earth because you see a get-rich-quick scheme in front of you should be something we all mock, mercilessly, for the idiotic benchmark of greed mixed with stupidity that it is. I have to believe that anyone that doesn't understand that is lacking a fundamental ability to think through consequences.

  4. Re:Bitcoin, a Leftist phenomenon by supremebob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bitcoin seems to be more loved by the Libertarian sect, which doesn't seem to give a damn about environmental causes and thinks that polluting businesses should "self regulate" themselves. Yeah... because that worked so well back in the 1950's and 60's.