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Bitcoin mining


BuffJim

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A plant opened up to mine Bitcoin about a mile from me. Last night they apparently started production. The noise is hideous. Like metal grinding on metal. It’s from the fans they use to cool the computer equipment. The whole town is up in arms. 
 

100 decibels of grinding metal is not the same as 100 decibels of symphony music. 

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In CO, the grow operations made industrial-zoned areas much more expensive.  Some places smelled overwhelmingly like weed, which some people hated and some loved.

I think most people would prefer the indoor grow houses rather than bitcoin mining in industrial or business parks, though.  I wonder what will become of crypto mining when folks get more uppity about carbon emissions and energy usage, those places really suck power and cause and inordinate amount of pollution, you see.

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2 minutes ago, Bag of Dicks said:

In CO, the grow operations made industrial-zoned areas much more expensive.  Some places smelled overwhelmingly like weed, which some people hated and some loved.

I think most people would prefer the indoor grow houses rather than bitcoin mining in industrial or business parks, though.  I wonder what will become of crypto mining when folks get more uppity about carbon emissions and energy usage, those places really suck power and cause and inordinate amount of pollution, you see.

pot requires energy too, possibly less I don't know, but those grow lights draw a lot.

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22 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

I wonder how you tax business revenue from a bitcoin farm?  :scratchhead:  

Here you go....  let us know what you find out.  I'm not reading all of the stuff on the IRS web site.   I'm had enough fun with the IRS this year.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/virtual-currencies

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Just now, Bikeguy said:

Here you go....  let us know what you find out.  I'm not reading all of the stuff on the IRS web site.   I'm had enough fun with the IRS this year.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/virtual-currencies

Sadly, that's just the boilerplate saying cash = credit card = in kind = bitcoin stuff for tax purposes.  IOW, if someone pays you in cash or with a credit card or a bit coin, it's still taxable income.

But creating bitcoin - how is that valued and tracked for tax purposes? I doubt the IRS has an easy way to identify when a coin is mined.  They can do it, but damned if that would be the opposite of the gutting of the IRS we've seen over the past decades, and likely it isn't until the FBI, Justice Dept., or some other criminal division gets involved.  

Years ago, DC was placed under direct federal supervision.  Lots of stuff was cut to make the budget work.  One of the brilliant ideas was to lay off a large percentage of the parking enforcement division.  Of course, each meter "maid" brought in MANY time their salary & benefits per year in parking fines.  Additionally, keeping parking spots in circulation makes life in a city livable.  Anyway, that's sort of akin to gutting the IRS - take away enforcement of tax evasion, and you leave tax money in the hands of the law breakers (and require the law abiding folks to take up the slack).  Not good policy, but in some circles, good politics.   

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1 hour ago, BuffJim said:

The noise is hideous. Like metal grinding on metal........     The whole town is up in arms. 

I spent some time in Buffalo in the early to mid 70's.  Loud hideous noise and grinding metal is an upgrade.  And no one was up in arms back then.

 

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3 hours ago, Bag of Dicks said:

I wonder what will become of crypto mining when folks get more uppity about carbon emissions and energy usage, those places really suck power and cause and inordinate amount of pollution, you see.

If it gets to the point where that affect their profits or their operations, they will call the utility company and say they want all their energy to come from 'green' sources, silencing any critics about how much pollution they cause or how big their carbon footprint is.

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3 hours ago, bikeman564™ said:

I have three. And if you didn't know, you didn't know. My city doesn't allow any signage, lighting etc..

The purple sky effect is only noticeable in damp drizzly type conditions ( in Buffalo that’s only about 310 days per year). That one is maybe a mile and a half away and I don’t otherwise notice them. 

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5 hours ago, BuffJim said:

A plant opened up to mine Bitcoin about a mile from me. Last night they apparently started production. The noise is hideous. Like metal grinding on metal. It’s from the fans they use to cool the computer equipment. The whole town is up in arms. 
 

100 decibels of grinding metal is not the same as 100 decibels of symphony music. 

Jim, there was a recent publicized small biz bitcoin operation last yr., that also caused huge amount of continuous noise. It was reported in the press/open Internet.  I think it was a small town outside of our City. Municipality were looking to fine them under noise disturbance bylaw ...... and maybe there was another piece of legislation. Not sure if the town authorities would have even asked the right questions when  business application/occupancy was submitted to them. So that issue needs to be tackled: how much are municipal authorities informed about bitcoin operations...and their list of questions/legislation that forbids/restricts certain types of businesses to operate depending on zoning/land use?

Well, yea, I work for a municipality...

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3 hours ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

If it gets to the point where that affect their profits or their operations, they will call the utility company and say they want all their energy to come from 'green' sources, silencing any critics about how much pollution they cause or how big their carbon footprint is.

They'll buy the utility company and tell them to stfu.

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2 hours ago, BuffJim said:

Kinda this. The facility makes its own electricity from natural gas. Used to sell the electricity to the utility companies. Now they are producing for their own use. 

This is a red flag for various municipalities who may lack expertise of what is required.

Also in Alberta we have a municipality, Medicine Hat, about 200 km. east of us that was developed on top of a large natural gas reserve. The municipality most likely makes money (and also saves money by drawing upon its natural reserve).  It's been like that for nearly 100 years since once upon a time for at least 50 years, there was commercial large facility there manufactured dishes, pottery etc. because they constructed firing  kilns on top. Now it's an art/heritage facility. 

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6 hours ago, BuffJim said:

The purple sky effect is only noticeable in damp drizzly type conditions ( in Buffalo that’s only about 310 days per year). That one is maybe a mile and a half away and I don’t otherwise notice them. 

Holy crap!  That is real!?

I guess I am an old fuddy duddy but bitcoin seems like such total bullshit to me. 

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On 2/23/2022 at 8:48 AM, BuffJim said:

A plant opened up to mine Bitcoin about a mile from me. Last night they apparently started production. The noise is hideous. Like metal grinding on metal. It’s from the fans they use to cool the computer equipment. The whole town is up in arms. 
 

100 decibels of grinding metal is not the same as 100 decibels of symphony music. 

Supposedly, the cost of electricity for Bitcoin mining is more than the value of the Bitcoin in most places - which is why it went way big in low-cost China before China outlawed it.

Now that Bitcoin prices have been falling a lot, I wonder how profitable the plant will be?

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