Gamers find their high end computers have been banned by environmental regulations in 6 states

I don't think those States are major bitcoin miners. Most bitcoin "mines" are in New York, Kentucky, Georgia, and Texas.

"Within the U.S., 19.9% of bitcoin’s hashrate is in New York, 18.7% in Kentucky, 17.3% in Georgia, and Texas accounts for 14%, according to Foundry USA."

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1200477/bitcoin-mining-by-country/

Looks like the states is overtaking China as the prime mining country. hur dur.



Has Biden addressed this ****?

 

You don't like US overtaking China?

 

Well considering his ******** on gas and fossil fuels you would THINK that he would be consistent on this? global warming yadda yadda...

 

Consistent on fossil fuels? Well, the argument against bitcoin mining is exactly that, - that is requires more fossil fuel sourced energy.

Maybe you didn't get the OP. Five States are banning the sale of those PCs. Its not Biden. Me thinks Biden might have taken residence in your head.

 

Of course he's in my head. The idiot has been placed into power and is failing miserably. Who else should I be concerned with right now? Trump? lol Trust me, when Biden is no longer in office or dead I won't have two ****s to give about him, until then...this is absolutely who we should be concerned with.

I agree it's a state issue, however you are telling me that mr "mandate" authoritarian has no voice towards the growing power consumption on bitcoin mining? No "executive order"? No "gun control rule" but for bitcoin mining? No meeting with individual states who are producing the most mining to talk about creating policy?

k.

 

Ok, well maybe you'll be able to sleep again when he is gone. Too bad its still 3 more sleepless years for you.

Take it up with your State reps if you want more regulations

 

I sleep just fine. He provides me with a great many examples of progressive hypocrisy and **** ups to post about.

 

A computer that draws the amount of current necessary to use 300 watts will use 300 watts from an 800 watt rated power supply. It may lose more power to heat than the larger power supply as well. I put 650 watt supplies in all of my business computers because they run cooler, longer and more quietly. The difference in cost is trivial. The only downside to a beefier power supply is cost.

 

The main reason is that China has been cracking down on Bitcoin miners. The Communist government had been subsidizing the cost of electricity, which led to opportunists taking advantage of that. China even at one point had to ban Bitcoin mining, if it was using subsidized state-supplied electric power.

 

Yes.

The weird thing is that the machine mentioned in the OP is a low end gaming machine. The video card is one step up from their bottom, the 1050. The CPU is an I5, mine is an I7.

The other weird thing is that they didn't go after crypto, which burns crazy amounts of energy.

People will do what I have been doing for a couple decades, buy parts they like, and take it down to the local computer repair shop and have them put it together.

But I would like to mention this is a terrible time to get a powerful gaming computer. A mid range card like the 3070 will set you back several hundred. You don't even want to know what a high end card would do to your wallet.

 

Hobbies are stupid, but gamers have funded a lot of progress in video, and that processing power gets used in other areas.

"If you want to change behavior, change the price." All you have to do is raise the cost of electricity.

 

All thanks to the new ideology of Globalism. The ideology that said free trade will always lead to lower prices. Except of course when there's a global disruption or war, and then we see prices shoot sky high with shortages. That's what becoming too reliant on cheap prices will get you.

Why specifically did those prices go up? Because those Northeast Asian countries that produce these computer chips are all very strict (it's their culture) and during the coronavirus pandemic put restrictions on international travel that were so strict that it interrupted international shipping and exports.

 

Those restrictions also slowed down the virus. That success came about from what they had learned fighting an epidemic that hadn't been a problem for us.

 

But then everyone pays more. If you just want to make computers more power-efficient, why not target those components?

Look at what Apple is delivering these days. Their "Apple Silicon" chips go head to head with Intel and AMD CPUs as well as Nvidia, AMD and Intel GPUs at a fraction of the power consumption.

 

It creates an incentive to be efficient. We need to be more efficient.

Assuming Apple is more efficient, and the price of juice goes up, that gives Apple a competetive advantage.

Banning won't work, that should be obvious. You could have a point of sale tax, but people will find a way around that.

The proceeds could be dedicated to upgrading the power grid, which is what we're really talking about, anyway...