Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China

A good reminder that Bitcoin runs on cheap renewables is BS. See also miners buying gas power plants in New York.[1]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=26828479" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=26828479</a>

&gt; Significantly, the Xinjiang and Sichuan regions of China combined account for more than 50 percent of the overall Bitcoin mining hash rate<p>I don&#x27;t get it, doesn&#x27;t this effectively mean China can force a 51% attack by just strongarming the pools that operate there?

&gt; the National Mine Safety Supervision Bureau has reported three recent coal mine accidents, including an April 10 “water penetration accident” in Xinjiang that caused 21 people to be trapped.<p>&gt; Significantly, the Xinjiang and Sichuan regions of China combined account for more than 50 percent of the overall Bitcoin mining hash rate<p>This is horrific on so many levels, I’m not even sure where to begin. My heart goes out for those poor miners slaving away for... what?

The Center of Decentralization sneezes and all of Bitcoin catches a cold

Bitcoin&#x27;s hash rate has always been volatile, and it doesn&#x27;t cause problems. Look at the raw values at &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.blockchain.com&#x2F;charts&#x2F;hash-rate" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.blockchain.com&#x2F;charts&#x2F;hash-rate</a>&gt;.

Is bitcoin really decentralized if mining and nodes are centralized?

One of the reasons I&#x27;m bearish on Bitcoin in the long term is there are systemic risks like this around miners.

The article ends weirdly abruptly:<p>&gt; It should also be noted that a mining difficult adjustment &lt;EOF&gt;<p>... what?

Can some explain what&#x27;s happening better than I understand bitcoin? Wouldn&#x27;t the idea that there is less miners be a positive for the price point? Supply and Demand? I mean if you have market of frozen orange juice, and they announce dry season will produce LESS juice, the price will skyrocket. So wouldn&#x27;t less miners for something like Bitcoin with hard set limit of coins, be a positive for its price?

I know it’s a flawed analogy, but considering the influence China has on Bitcoin, on some level buying into Bitcoin seems not unlike shorting the US dollar.

This is actually good for bitcoin

Fork BTC to Pure Proof of Stake consensus. Balances mapped 1:1. No Environmental problems, no scalability problems, no latency problems. It&#x27;s not a question of if this fork happens, but when.

frustrating that the ongoing use of bitcoin is never going to require less power. transactions take ages because of how much work is required to update the chain.<p>when the imaginary currency goes away, maybe we can move onto something more efficient like giant rocks with holes drilled in them?

Use proof of stake coins like Cardano and Polkadot<p>They use 10000 to a million times less energy than bitcoin to process payments!

Didn’t Enron do this too?

Power outages could be qctuqlly used as a tool to localize miners.