Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nalrey 1630 days ago
Do you know that internet is down due to civil unrest and many people are reported dead? While I understand your excitement towards Bitcoin's problems, please read up on context why it is happening.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/06/asia/kazakhstan-fuel-protests...

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/06/world/kazakhstan-pro...

1 comments

The civil unrest was triggered in part by soaring energy prices, in a country where bitcoin mining consumes 8% of total generation capacity.
Soaring prices of fuel and gas, not electricity.

And Kazahk authorities are far from democratic, they block internet in whole country to stop the protests, they did strange things with internet access last year also.

And they invited Russian troops to stop the unrest. And their (or the invited) military shoots to kill its own citizens.

> Soaring prices of fuel and gas, not electricity.

Nat gas accounts for about 20% of Kazahktan's electricity generation mix.

> And Kazahk authorities are far from democratic, they block internet in whole country to stop the protests, they did strange things with internet access last year also. And they invited Russian troops to stop the unrest. And their (or the invited) military shoots to kill its own citizens.

This is all true, but also a bit beside the point given the above exchange.

But, whatever. Suppose I concede this point that coal consumption doesn't really have much of anything at all to do Kazahktan's current unrest. Doesn't that make nalrey's comment here totally moot?

Riots are over LPG prices, used in cars, and villagers' kitchens. It is composed of heavier weight alkanes, propane, butane and heavier.

It's not the same as the natgas used for power generation, which is almost entirely methane.

Not every energy crisis in the wolrd is caused by Bitcoin, which literally uses less energy than gamers or heated pools.

> Riots are over LPG prices... not the same as the natgas used for power generation

...think very carefully and very slowly about the following question: so what?

(The answer to that question will betray a wild misunderstanding of the political economy of Kazakhstan.)

> Not every energy crisis in the wolrd is caused by Bitcoin

Hm. I don't remember saying otherwise. I must have stuttered?

> which literally uses less energy than gamers or heated pools.

Globally. In Kazakhstan it consumes 8% of production, which is insane. 8% is a fucking huge number in a country experiencing an energy crisis.

Hell, it's a huge number period. By percentage comparison, that's all refrigeration and freezing in the US. Can you imagine? Insane.

Anyways, this is all beside the point. I'll avoid stuttering this time and repeat myself clearly and slowly this time:

>> But, whatever. Suppose I concede this point that coal consumption doesn't really have much of anything at all to do Kazahktan's current unrest. Doesn't that make nalrey's comment here totally moot?

Oil and gas contribute 50% of Kazakhstan's electricity generation