Miami is scheme for ways to become the U.S. bitcoin capital . Mayor Francis Suareztold CNBC last weekthat his city would receive bitcoin miners with capable sleeve , as China picks up itsnationwide crackdown on miner . What ’s more , Suarez also said that the city was looking into lowering vitality prices to further entice miners , as well as put to work to shew enterprise zones with low taxation rate and regulations to charm bitcoin operations to set up store .
“ We want to make certain that our city has an opportunity to vie , ” Suarez said . “ We ’re babble to a lot of companies and just recount them , ‘ Hey , we want you to be here . ’ … We understand how important this is … miners need to get to a certain kilowatt damage per hr . And so we ’re working with them on that . ”
The move jibe into Suarez ’s turgid attempts to make the city a techno - futurist Eden , as he courts various tech entrepreneurs for their concern . In one of his most head - scratching moves , Suarez hasflirted with Elon Musk ’s Boring Companyon a plan to build electric vehicle tunnel under the Miami River and through the porous limestone undergirding the metropolis and much of South Florida . Some of these technical school fanboy movement have backfired in a heavy direction . Earlier this calendar month , a vast Bitcoin group discussion held in the city ( where Suarez was a keynote speaker)turned out to be a superspreader event . ( What else could perchance have been the outcome for a cluster of libertarian crypto bros convening in a state that never had a masquerade party mandate even at the summit of the pandemic ? )
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez speaks onstage during the Bitcoin 2021 Convention at the Mana Convention Center in Miami.Photo: Marco Bello/AFP (Getty Images)
And there ’s a reasonably intense irony around building a bitcoin empire in a chop-chop drowning city . Bitcoin , which is mined by putting huge data processor systems to work solving math problem , is the most energy intensive form of cryptocurrency : The latest estimate from Digiconomist , a website that tracks bitcoin energy function , estimatedthat the currentness uses as much electrical energy as Argentina , while emitting as much atomic number 6 dioxide as Belarus . The city of Miami projected earlier this class that it will have to spendalmost $ 4 billion over the next 40 yearsjust on building to safeguard parts of the urban center from ocean degree rise and to transmigrate everyone away from the rest .
Suarez gas the urban center ’s use of nuclear power as a intellect for its low energy prices . Nuclear is a no - C form of push , but it ’s hardly the dominant kind of energy in Florida . rude gas is Florida ’s most democratic energy source , with the Energy Information Agencynotingit accounts for about 75 % of the Department of State ’s generating capacitance . Turkey Point , the main atomic power industrial plant in South Florida , is really ahybrid atomic - gaseous state power plant . The fogy fuel side of the flora bring forth more energy than the atomic side .
If Suarez successfully bugger off mineworker flocking to his city , there ’s no guarantee that they wo n’t tap into dirty energy for power all that fresh coin . In fact , it would almost certainly lead to the motivation for more generating capacity . That ’s not pass away to come from bring fresh nuclear online , which is a decade - plus process . Nor does it seem like it would come from solar , with local service program Florida Power and Lightrecently back off a planto install more solar capability .
Brobdingnagian numbers of miners pouring into other places have spell big problems for energy supply . Last month , Iran enjoin it wouldtemporarily ban all bitcoin miningin the country after the administration say illegal mining operations were solicit a mind - waste 2 gigawatts of ability each day , contributing to rolled dimout on the already - stressed grid . mineworker had set up workshop en masse shot in Iran in late months , appeal by the country ’s depleted free energy prices ( in part due to its heavily subsidized oil ) . The Formosan province of Inner Mongolia alsorecently banned bitcoin miningto get vim use under control andother places have done the sameas well . Let ’s hope Miami con its lessons from them rather than witness out the voiceless direction what pass off when crypto mining come to townsfolk .
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