cryptocurrencies

[barnswallow]

Dedicating a thread to this topic.

Began in 2008?

Article in the NYTimes, today:

The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin [NYTimes;4.10.23]

The above article had some shocking revelations about bitcoin mines, how much energy they consume, and how 'programs' they engage in with electric companies enable them to suck money into their coffers whatever the circumstance, and pass those costs on to you and me!

The NYTimes has a subsection in the business section titled 'Cryptocurrency' with headings 'Crypto Terms to Know', 'A Guide to Digital Currency' and 'Crypto Businesses, Explained'. Anyway!

New to the Crypto World? Here Are the Terms to Know. [NYTimes;6.8.22]

 

[barnswallow]

This N.Y.U. Student Owns a $6 Million Crypto Mine. His Secret Is Out. [NYTimes;12.29.23]

Subtitle: A legal dispute in a tiny Texas town unexpectedly reveals how Chinese nationals can move money to the U.S. without drawing the attention of authorities in either country.

Mr. Yu, a 23-year-old student at New York University, has also become — quite unintentionally — a case study in how Chinese nationals can move money from China to the United States without drawing the attention of authorities in either country.

What interested me wasn't so much identifying a Chinese student in the U.S. , although it is interesting that

. . . Chinese investors have flooded into the United States, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build or run crypto mines, after the Chinese government banned such operations in 2021.

The Chinese government banned crypto mines. I didn't know that.

The mines are a way for Chinese investors to generate cryptocurrency, primarily Bitcoin, which they can cash in for U.S. dollars on exchanges. The Channing mine, built on an open field, consists of several dozen buildings designed to hold 6,000 specialized computers that can operate day and night trying to guess the right sequence of numbers that earn new Bitcoins, currently worth more than $40,000 each. Such sites can place a burden on the nation’s electrical grid, The New York Times has reported, and their Chinese ownership has drawn national security scrutiny.

I'd forgotten the purpose of crypto mines. I do know that the value of crypto comes from its scarcity. It has a prescribed number of 'coins'. And their value is determined by the demand for this limited supply. Crypto mines exist to "guess the right sequence that earn new Bitcoins, currently worth more than $40,000 each." I wonder how often they actually come up with the necessary sequences.
I was also interested by the size of the town:

Channing is a town in the Panhandle with a population of 281 residents."

How the money laundering works and how difficult it is to trace the transactions after a certain point, from both the Chinese and the U.S. sides. People's cleverness at skirting the law without breaking it. Tether being a type of cryptocurrency that has a price fixed at $1. What does that accomplish? The value of cryptocurrency seems it's quality of increasing in value.

 

[Adorecream76]

I collect a weird crypto currency. It's what people collected in the past - gold coins, bullion and sovereigns.
At the moment I have just over 8 ounces of it, thats about $16,200 American and 25,500 NZD.