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Access to cheap electricity can make or break a cryptocurrency mining operation, and firms angling to strike it rich in an industry where delays can and will cost digital money will do just about anything to get it, as soon as they can.
The latest move in the quest for bargain-basement kilowatt hours, as quickly as possible: building out local power grids with bespoke electrical substations.
Canadian company DMG Blockchain is building what it hopes will be a fully-functioning substation near the Southern British Columbia town of Castlegar, which is electrified by hydro power. When I spoke to Steven Eliscu, who leads corporate development for DMG, over the phone, he told me that building the substation costs millions of dollars and required the company to build its own access road to haul equipment to the site. The goal: to plug it into the local grid and have it power DMG's expanded mining operations by September.
"At the end of August we'll go through a commissioning process where the utility will test everything as a completed substation and make sure that the town doesn't blow up when we flip the switch," Eliscu told me over the phone.
Source: MotherBoard
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 04 2018, @01:50AM (13 children)
I can't get over the fact that we are so accustomed to fiat currency, that now people are crazy-mad to generate their own fiat currency which resides no place except on some computers.
Trading in gold, or silver, or even copper leaves the recipient with something of value. A bit coin? I can't even throw a coin at an armed robber. It's all pretend.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @02:24AM
and then chuck it at him.
Your mind is small; you don't know what you're talking about.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday August 04 2018, @03:42AM (11 children)
In times of economic turmoil bad enough that money is broken I really question what value gold and silver will have. Gold doesn't really oxidize so it's got utility in plating surfaces that need to last a long time. Other than that use case and the use cases associated with it being a pretty material that humans are attracted to what else does it do? And in terms of economic stress how critical are either of those going to be?
Silver I think has more utility as it could be used for joining some materials. Silver plated parts are easier to solder as well and that is damn handy but sort of a luxury. What else does silver do besides that and be shiny and sought after by humans?
Copper seems to have the most utility as it could be used to make wire. Actually I suppose silver can do that too but not gold.
They are all heavy and malleable so they should be able to make good paperweights and I would guess stuff like cooking and eating equipment and that's pretty valuable. They seem like they would be a lot easier for newbies to make a half crappy but serviceable bowl or fork with hand tools than to try something like steel. I don't think gold and silver are toxic but isn't copper?
So I'm curious what is gold, silver and copper expected to do when the shit hits the fan? If it is for barter it seems like there needs to be enough economy to support artificial stored wealth and there is a lot of opportunity for ripping people off through doctored up money.
Can you share your thoughts?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday August 04 2018, @05:17AM (2 children)
The Manhattan Project borrowed the United States Mint's entire supply of silver so they could draw it into magnet wire for use in Calutrons. A Calutron is a huge and _quite_ inefficient mass spectrometer.
That Oak Ridge National Laboratory is in Tennessee is because it's close to the Tennessee Valley Authority: Those Calutrons consumed one-tenth of THE ENTIRE NATION'S GENERATING CAPACITY.
Los Alamos knew early on that Uranium Hexafluoride gas turbines would work far better but they didn't get them to work well enough until after the war.
Get this:
The man from Los Alamos asked the director of the Mint "How many tons of silver do you have?"
"We don't use tons. We weigh silver in OUNCES!"
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday August 04 2018, @05:30AM (1 child)
or at least I had read a story that the first time they turned the callutrons on they ripped all the nails out of the framing because the magnetic field was so strong.
That's good stuff.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 05 2018, @03:06PM
https://www.atomicheritage.org/key-documents/rockwell-calutrons [atomicheritage.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 04 2018, @01:44PM (5 children)
The only "use" in such a situation, is as currency.
It has value because the guy down the street would like to have some of it, if for no other reason, than to impress the women in his life. That is the only value required of the "precious" metals, gems, or even cheap costume jewelry.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday August 04 2018, @02:05PM (4 children)
Is that going to be important enough in the time period and economic turmoil as being discussed though? Is gold going to hold value because it is shiny and pretty when there isn't enough available money to facilitate financial transactions at all?
I would think something like laundry detergent is much more likely to be used as a currency. Depending on how much starving is going on of course.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 04 2018, @02:43PM (3 children)
You could look at catastrophes past.
Now, we need to understand that the fool who allows it to be known that he has tons of precious metals will soon be dead, and that the populace will divvy up the spoils. Judiciously guarded precious metals, secretly hoarded, and brought out in small amounts at opportune times is always respected. The fall of the Ottoman, the fall of the Iranian democracy, the French Revolution - pick any catastrophic event in human history. People who have access to precious metals before and during the catastrophe generally find the means to survive the event.
The legal currency may become worthless, but people who refuse that currency will often accept a few bits of silver, because it can be traded again in the future.
Expendable and consumable items, such as your laundry soap, can't be counted on, because it decays relatively rapidly. Not to mention, you might use some of it up yourself, and thus be unable to trade it again.
Human nature isn't going to change drastically in the future. If you can survive a catastrophe with some gold in hand, you are well set going forward.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:12PM (2 children)
I feel exactly the same way about my generator every time I break it out and run my house off it for a day to validate my emergency operating procedures and capabilities. I'm not going around saying "hey I got a generator right here come steal it!!!" but the g'damn generator is because it's loud and at night I'm the only one with lights on in the city if no one else has power. I'm not really sure what to do about that except keeping an armed sentry on it but then I can't do anything else if I have to be a sentry. That is going to be a serious challenge in a real nasty situation.
I was pondering this in my head and my conclusion was that it seems to be best at leaving someone in a strong position at the end of the mess - that does itself have a lot of value since being on top during recovery can be extremely lucrative and can start entire empires at the scale of nations or persons.
Being in a strong position at the end of the mess might itself be the saving grace - it is what allows a relatively valueless material to maintain value and continue to be currency.
Seems like that is still quite precarious though but it is hard to argue with history. I guess this kind of problem really depends on how long is it going to be bad. I'm not really well versed enough with economic collapses to know how that all plays out.
I do agree humans don't change very much if at all.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 04 2018, @05:24PM (1 child)
Noisy generator - I guess you don't have a basement? Basements are ideal. Park that noisy bad boy out of the way, remove the muffler, and buy enough pipe to run the exhaust up to the roof. At that end of the pipe, put a nice Harley-Davidson muffler. All the mechanical sounds of the generator are absorbed by the basement walls and the earth, while the muffler deadens that exhaust.
Or, you can dig a nice tornado shelter, and do the same thing.
A shed will help, but it won't be surrounded by nice sound deadening earth.
I can't help with being the only lighted house in the neighborhood, unless you want to invest in some stylish shutters. https://securitydirectuk.com/roller-shutters/commercial/solid-commercial [securitydirectuk.com] You'll be ready for the zombie apocalypse with those.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday August 04 2018, @05:38PM
Actually I just got a new Honda inverter generator with a dynamic RPM and it can be pretty quiet depending on load. When I had the generator powering only my ham radio room with a load of a few hundred watts I was able to talk to people with a radio while standing right next to it and they couldn't even hear it run over the microphone. If I put a 1.5kw oil heater on it and throw the switch it gets to be about as loud as my previous non-inverter static RPM unit.
I had considered doing an install in the basement but opted not to run an ICE indoors after I looked up what it takes when that is done industrially or commercially. I don't have anywhere near the venting in the basement that a professional install does and that seems like bare minimum due diligence. The idea of a leaking or broken exhaust system really concerns me especially for the specific use case of emergency operation.
That is specifically because there will wind up being a significant difference in operation during testing and during actual usage: runtime. While something like piping the exhaust out might work ok during testing when game time comes around and many times more hours are put on the system that won't actually have been tested. If there is a partial poisoning event during the emergency that will only make things much worse to deal with. I also looked and there is no commercial solution for home installs in a basement I could find. Seems pretty risky.
I did consider putting the generator in a dog house with something like pink wall insulation lining the inside - that lets it be outdoors, deaden some or all of the sound, and protect it from the environment such as rain. I had rejected it as not offering much increased security over chaining it to my hand rail outside but stealth does have benefit now doesn't it.
I think I'll re-evaluate the doghouse idea. Thanks!
Those shutters are awesome. I have blackout curtains but it is still pretty easy for little cracks of light to make it out and they stick out like a sore thumb at night.
Kind of reminds me of watching M*A*S*H when they need to go blackout.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @02:05PM (1 child)
Gold is one of the best electrical conductors around, probably the best without access to modern technology. You can make gold wire too, it's just not economical.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday August 04 2018, @02:13PM
I think we are actually both wrongish.