[BREAKING NEWS]: Putin getting ready to kick Bitmain's ass

[thejaytiesto]

Yey more bitcoin miners. (insert sarcasm here)
To be honest, bitcoin mining is wasteful and it totally just doesn't do anything else but produce, well, bitcoins. Just think about it, a miner just mines bitcoins and nothing else really. It just tries to create digital gold which is totally useless in practical use but we value it based on how much we want to pay for it (supply and demand). No, russia has so much excess power, so why not just sell it to industries that will totally make use of it in better things. Though don't get me wrong, I love bitcoins. I really believe this is the future, but not how it is acquired.

Bitcoin mining doesn't only produce bitcoins... that is in fact a side effect of what mining is really about: processing the transaction. Without hashing power you don't process anything and your blockchain is useless.

Sure PoW has a lot of problems but guess what, it has been proved to be the only method to keep a crypto running with no downtimes for 7+ years record.

Until someone invents a better system, the more hashrate and the more competition between hashrate the better for Bitcoin, so I say bring it on Putin.

[cryptocointrading]

Yey more bitcoin miners. (insert sarcasm here)
To be honest, bitcoin mining is wasteful and it totally just doesn't do anything else but produce, well, bitcoins. Just think about it, a miner just mines bitcoins and nothing else really. It just tries to create digital gold which is totally useless in practical use but we value it based on how much we want to pay for it (supply and demand). No, russia has so much excess power, so why not just sell it to industries that will totally make use of it in better things. Though don't get me wrong, I love bitcoins. I really believe this is the future, but not how it is acquired.

The first stage is to get an economy of people going that actually mine, the second stage is to use that foundation and only use it for useful things = calculating transactions, for now that is a side earning but with ever increasing difficulty it will soon become the main source of income for miners

[fasdorcas]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/putin-s-aide-seeks-100-million-to-rival-china-in-bitcoin-mining

   Today’s bitcoin mining requires special computers based on chips with minimized power consumption. China’s Bitmain Technologies Ltd. is one of the leading producers of such equipment and also runs Antpool, a processing pool that combines individual miners from China and other countries. Rival Bitfury Group, founded by Valery Vavilov, a Russian-speaking native of Latvia, produces equipment for mining virtual currencies and runs large-scale centers in Georgia and Iceland.

    Russia has 20 gigawatts of excess power capacity, with consumer electricity prices as low as 80 kopeks (1.3 cents) per kilowatt hour, which is less than in China, RMC said in the presentation. The company initially plans to locate mining computers based on Bitfury chips in individual Russian households to challenge Bitmain by using Russia’s lower power prices.

Now this is getting interesting. And when Russia joins the mining ecosystem, you know that the US is not simply going to sit back and relax. They will jump in too eventually.
The Chinese mining monopoly has it's days countered. It's time to fire Jihan.

Lol, when I read your post Heading, I thought Putin will be getting involved into this…lmao. By the way, let’s just watch and see what happens, will they be able to beat Bitmain, will the US just sit and watch or get into this too? It’s just a matter of time. By the way ***chews popcorn*** this is interesting.

[bryant.coleman]

How reliable is this news? Even if the news is reliable, Russia hasn't shown much tolerance towards Bitcoins lately. Also, remember that the owner of Bitfury (Valery Vavilov) is a Latvian citizen. Russia and Latvia are not having good relations right now. Another aspect that needs to be considered is the price difference between the Bitfury and Bitmain mining rigs.

[severaldetails]

now that another world power is joining in the game, bitcoin will surely dominate the scene, we all know Russia will not easily back down a good fight, if things goes well, both Russia and China will have dominance on bitcoins

Well, it's too bad that the Russian government had to ban BTC-e and all the other .ru exchangers. They released another list last month banning dozens more. They have been especially harsh towards bitcoin commerce. But I guess now they see the writing on the wall: everyone wants in on Bitcoin, and there's only so much time left. The supply is nearly 80% mined out, so it makes sense for those with capital (including national governments) to subsidize mining.

I suppose they banned those exchanges to clear the table.
Presumably the exchanges did not pay taxes and were not controllable by the state and therefore of no use for the russian authorities.
Now they have space to create their own bitcoin world the way they like it.
It seems possible that they could become some kind of competition for China.
But it's possible as well that China and Russia could work together.
I'm not sure if that would be a good thing for bitcoin.

[hatshepsut93]

This is indeed [BREAKING NEWS].

Shit's about to get real.

It's a sensationalist clickbait crap. Putin himself didn't say that Russia will start mining Bitcoin, it was some of his advisers who said that he has a plan to start a large scale mining operation, and he even launched an ICO (which is kinda suspicious, because why would the government need private investors?). Knowing Russia's history with corruption, it's quite likely that's this is just another scheme to steal money while making a PR move.

[CryptosapienZA]

Interesting indeed, but I am a bit wary when governments want a slice of this pie. I dont think its a good thing that one country has majority over hashpower. I wish my country was as this proactive.

[Pursuer]

as long as this leads to more decentralization of mining throughout the whole world, it can be the best news for bitcoin. so far we have only China as the major manufacturer of mining equipment known as ASICs and they can do whatever they want, like asking for high prices, not releasing new version of their hardware to other countries until they become older, .... but if other companies start mass producing that can create competition and it is good for customers.

[Usui-Chan]

Instead of fighting over it, I wonder what would happen if they team up to centralize and control bitcoin. Would the price/value of bitcoin increase or decrease?

[talkbitcoin]

Instead of fighting over it, I wonder what would happen if they team up to centralize and control bitcoin. Would the price/value of bitcoin increase or decrease?

miners can never fully centralize and/or control bitcoin. what they can do is to delay things, and make us angry like what they did this year. but in the end it is all the users that decide things. bitcoin is not just miners, it is all those who run a node, all those who are holding some coins, all the businesses that use it.

if some day bitcoin becomes centralize and people don't like it, they will either fork and kick the malicious miners out (like changing the PoW) or they simply stop using bitcoin and price will crash. and believe me when i say this, miners know this better than you and me and they don't want to harm their huge investment operation.

[kalich]

It will take a lot of time before Russia will join blockchain technology, but it will be good.

[SvenBomvolen]

You all must be like WOW after this news. But I am stayed sceptical. You may call me a nerd, but I googled how much the electricity costs in Russia and it has nothing with this 80 kopeek the author says about. The scatter of the price is really huge just like Russia and it's from 0,97 (For Irkutsk which very far and not developed) to 4,28 (For developed and turistic Krasnodar). In USD it is like 0,02 to 0,07 Cents add to that on the price affect many factors, such us day and night tarifs, city, gas or electrical stove and many others. Add to that each year this prices are rising. So now it is a big question - is it really so cheap to mine in Russia or it's just new Putin's tric based on searching for new friends and business partners?

[Captimiz]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/putin-s-aide-seeks-100-million-to-rival-china-in-bitcoin-mining

   Today’s bitcoin mining requires special computers based on chips with minimized power consumption. China’s Bitmain Technologies Ltd. is one of the leading producers of such equipment and also runs Antpool, a processing pool that combines individual miners from China and other countries. Rival Bitfury Group, founded by Valery Vavilov, a Russian-speaking native of Latvia, produces equipment for mining virtual currencies and runs large-scale centers in Georgia and Iceland.

    Russia has 20 gigawatts of excess power capacity, with consumer electricity prices as low as 80 kopeks (1.3 cents) per kilowatt hour, which is less than in China, RMC said in the presentation. The company initially plans to locate mining computers based on Bitfury chips in individual Russian households to challenge Bitmain by using Russia’s lower power prices.

Now this is getting interesting. And when Russia joins the mining ecosystem, you know that the US is not simply going to sit back and relax. They will jump in too eventually.
The Chinese mining monopoly has it's days countered. It's time to fire Jihan.

So will it be private Russian companies or the Russian government mining he bitcoins?

[Spes]

Any further decentralisation is good, so of course I see this as good news. However very bad news for anyone planning to mine or currently mining.

[manchester93]

Interesting indeed, but I am a bit wary when governments want a slice of this pie. I dont think its a good thing that one country has majority over hashpower. I wish my country was as this proactive.

I think it's inevitable. Bitcoin's decentralized nature made governments scared to act against it, for fear of falling behind the others. Now, they will start scrambling to secure a piece of the pie. Is it a good thing? Well, if it takes mining power away from China, it probably is. Russia definitely won't be the last country moving in this direction.

[lucifochrome]

Okay, that's some good news then US will also mine and the other countries then btc price will continually rise.

[pearlmen]

There is no way I am going to support monopoly in any form but at the same time, whether the coins is being mined in China or Russia or even the United States, it does not change anything in that, it does not by automatic increase the maximum that can be mined rather it will just then take the control from individuals back to the conglomerates to be the deciding factor. With government now showing some form of attention, I am sure they have some ulterior motive towards this.

[HeRetiK]

So will it be private Russian companies or the Russian government mining he bitcoins?

It will be a private Russian company co-owned by one of Putin's staff members, not the Russian government itself. My educated guess would also be that they will make more money during the ICO than they'll ever be able to mine.

[BrewMaster]

It will take a lot of time before Russia will join blockchain technology, but it will be good.

Russia has been interested in blockchain technology for a very long time. probably longer than most countries. in fact one of the biggest conferences on blockchain technology takes place in Moscow every year.
the only thing they have been behind was regulating bitcoin, and that is starting to change now after Japan regulated bitcoin.

[cryptocointrading]

Until someone invents a better system, the more hashrate and the more competition between hashrate the better for Bitcoin, so I say bring it on Putin.

Several coins have done just that already but nobody cares, bitcoin has the name and the fame it will always be the supreme leader