Bitcoin Forum

According to the following article, cryptocurrency mining was banned in the city of Plattsburgh, New York, for 18 months in order to "protect and enhance the City's natural, historic, cultural and electrical resources."

The article claims that cryptocurrency mining use so much electricity that exceeded the allotted monthly budget, while residents are facing enormous increases in their electricity bills.
-Quoting from the article
"One single cryptocurrency mining operation called Coinmint used up around 10% of the city's allotted power supply alone in January and February, according to Motherboard."

Plattsburgh offers lower electricity costs compared to the national average, thus, becoming an attractive place for miners.
What are your thoughts on this?

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/for-the-first-time-a-us-city-has-banned-cryptocurrency-mining/

I am still not convinced that there were any kind of mining taking place in New York though. according to a quick google search that I did the first time I heard this news (which to be honest looks more like an FUD or at least a big exaggeration) the cost of electricity there is one of the highest in the whole world and everyone knows that mining with high electricity cost is just impossible.

Not quite...
Commercial Electricity in Plattsburgh
The average commercial electricity rate in Plattsburgh is 4.17¢/kWh.[1]
The average industrial electricity rate in Plattsburgh is 2.61¢/kWh.[1]

https://www.electricitylocal.com/states/new-york/plattsburgh/

And here is the moratorium:
http://www.cityofplattsburgh.com/DocumentCenter/View/3334

Great find! Seems like it's not fud at all, I actually doubted that it was fake news, it's a well known forum after all.

What are your thoughts regarding this matter? What if other cities take action against cryptocurrency mining too?

This is one very unique case, most places won't have any limits on usage as long as you are paying a fair amount for it. I wouldn't think that anywhere in the state of NY is the best for mining, states in the north west would probably be much better suited given the low temperatures and costs involved.

The law has already been passed, as the above poster submitted. Due to the total amount of electricity being used, the costs are distributed to a specific percentage, equally, to all residents of the city. That's why residents are facing increases in their bills, the increase mentioned might be extravagant, but it seems totally true. The law was passed just to protect their residents of paying too much in bills.

I also thought the same way. I thought that their is no such thing as electricity limit, well if electricity really do have a limit in NY. I think it because they have a very few supply of electricity that is why they put a limit on it, For that, I think it's really not the best place for bitcoin mining for the sake of the citizens.

Glad to see that the community is really shooting down this, because its really seems to be fake. Obviously even non-Americans really know that the cost of living around that area is very high so it doesn't make sense to put any bitcoin mining activity in that place. And if I'm a miner, I wouldn't choose that place as well.

So this is clearly another fake news to spread fear among us or probably riding the popularity of crypto to get at least a click to their website.

In my hubble opinion electricity companies will come up with a separate tariff for digital miners soon and everyone will get their own stable profit

I think it won’t be too hard to find a solution. I bet it will be quicker than those 18 months. Hope, they will find a permanent solution.

The news was amplified by the media. The state of New York in the United States is not a large supply of electricity, in fact, a large number of miners in the United States near Canada in mining, there are more adequate power supply, low advantage and more low cost of living, mine construction cost is also more advantage for the United states.

Cities with low electricity costs always attract miners and they start consuming a lot of energy which harms the environment and mining operations force those cities to spend more money to produce more power.
I think the the banning decision is the best decision, miners should use alternative sources of electricity and start their projects in isolated places.

I am not surprised as mining requires a lot of energetic resources.

Since Plattsburgh is facing the crisis of power supply, the authority is bound to take that type of decision. But it should not be the permanent solution. With the decision, economy of Plattsburgh will stay behind. Rather they should increase the power generation and solve the crisis.  :) :)

Nothing will happen.
The city was somewhat of an unique case which enjoyed very cheap energy but of course limited.
So, rather than giving out cheap energy to a company who probably employed a security guard and a cleaning lady only they've chosen to give them the finger instead of cheap energy.
I doubt there are that many cities in the US in the same situation.


You didn't even bother to read all the post.
I've put up there the decision by the city hall published on their own site.
How can you still call this fake?


Why?
That would be an unfair advantage over other industries.
Remember, free market ??

Even if the news is true, it will not have big impact on bitcoin growth in my opinion. Best thing about bitcoin mining is that it can be done from any part of the world. At such, there will always be places with cheap electricity and supporting government to let the process continue. With time passing by, the number of coins being mined will decrease and we actually do not need much new setups anyway.

I'm fairly sure it's just this one place in NY, that's why the costs were cheap. There's no shortage of electricity supply within the state of NY, it's not hard to run power lines across the country but quite clearly anywhere close to the source of energy will be cheaper than somewhere where it needs transporting. It's why mining is extensive in China and Russia.

And if the climate is freezing (northern part of Russia, Alaska, Iceland, etc...) it can also cuts down the cost of the airco, which can make the whole mining thing more profitable. My favourit story is the old and dodgy nuclear power plant in Russia on the north, they said they are willing to reopen it, if miners are coming, in order to supply them with cheap electricity...