Bitcoin - What if governments restrict or block electricity supply for mining?

[jmlona]

IF governments were to adopt such a strategy it would not be the end of bitcoin, it could easily be moved to a different method such as POS or even the difficulty could just be scaled down so that it can be mined with lower electricity usage.

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[FrueGreads]

I don't really think that will ever happen. Even China, that shutdown exchanges and banned ICOs, did nothing against mining. A lot of fud circulated the media at that time, but nothing happened. So far, most developed countries are actually friendly enough, and although they are trying to regulate bitcoin, they are not really trying to kill it.

If they did, I think the only solution would be for real decentralization to occur, and for people all around the world to start mining BTC. Now that more companies are getting into the mining space, maybe equipment will get less expensive, and more powerful.

[aryaadikariyansyahsuwarto]

it's really true, in my country also bitcoin started hunted by the government, even not impossible later bitcoin will be prohibited in my country. it's because of the negative impact of people who commit criminals by carrying the name of bitcoin, bitcoin looks bad and leads to the bad (crime). I hope for bitcoin users, use bitcoin with good things, because if we do that, the government in any country will surely allow the circulation of bitcoin, because from the good thing it will have an impact on the good as well.

[Cikyazi]

I can hardly imagine how governments could confirm to what end electricity is being used by specific ppl or entities.  I would imagine that any concerted effort to restrict electricity for miners would just make them move into the shade or decentralize mining altogether.

[RamonBTC]

If renewable energy is possible for this operation then most bitcoin farmers must consider, then this concern of yours would be answered. I don’t know much about how the government will react to bitcoin miners who transfer from each country because of restrictions.

In our country we do have freedom to choose on our privacy to hide or not because their is no threat or reason to be anonymous as it isn’t illegal. No taxation is implemented and electric company doesn’t impose higher bill but just the standard.

[hieu81]

Most governments are fighting a War on Drugs and they use clever tactics to detect "Weed" farms. If you have a very high electrical usage, then you are flagged as a possible "Weed" farm.

I have heard about Bitcoin miners being identified as possible "Weed" farmers, because their electrical usage was above the normal average.

This got me thinking. If governments wants to target Bitcoin farmers, they just have to implement the same kind of tactics as they have done with "Weed" farmers. <Obviously this will only work for medium to large operations>

How effective can this strategy be, if they want to target the big Bitcoin farmers? How can you mask your operation as a counter measure for this strategy?

I know this will never shutdown Bitcoin mining completely, but it can reduce the total hashing power. <Strength of the network>

Let's discuss.

Energy is the problem of all the nations of the world! To develop, Bitcoin and altcoin need to reduce power consumption!
Many countries will ban the use of electricity for digital money mining!

[Kakmakr]

I don't really think that will ever happen. Even China, that shutdown exchanges and banned ICOs, did nothing against mining. A lot of fud circulated the media at that time, but nothing happened. So far, most developed countries are actually friendly enough, and although they are trying to regulate bitcoin, they are not really trying to kill it.

If they did, I think the only solution would be for real decentralization to occur, and for people all around the world to start mining BTC. Now that more companies are getting into the mining space, maybe equipment will get less expensive, and more powerful.

The Chinese government is very cunning, because the mining operations consume some of their surpluss energy/electricity and they generate some income from that, so whilst this is the scenario, they would not need to shut it down. This is not the case with many other countries, where there are a shortage of energy supply.

In countries with a shortage of energy supply, governments might react differently.

[gobingo]

If it is done by the government it will be very harmful to the miner bitcoin, and the government should never do that, and we the miners must find a solution to get their own electricity flow so as not to depend on the government.

[Bren Briones]

That might be far from happening my friend. If they do it, not only thr bitcoin farmers would be affected but the citizens as well and I think that would be a problem to any goverment. Granting it could happend, you just need to go to DIY stores, buy some electric generator and continue farming.

[bolbau]

if only individuals are doing bitcoin mining, I do not think it will be detected as excessive power consumption. but for a group of people doing bitcoin mining in one place, obviously it will be suspicious. but I think it can still be solved by making a small company or asking for legality in writing related to the use of electricity. because the miners also pay the fee and not a steal or use it for free.

[Snaic]

This happened approximately in China, when the miners there began to prohibit the use of cheap electric power there for the production of bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. After that, many miners immediately began to look for other places abroad with suitable conditions for the addition of bitcoin. Some moved to the province of Quebec in Canada, where there is cheap electricity and a pretty cool climate. Some were looking for this opportunity in Russia and Belarus. Belarus has a very suitable climate and preferential legislation with respect to the crypto currency. So the output can always be found.

[squatz1]

This would be very hard to do, it's not easy to pick out who is mining and who is just using a lot of power in their homes. So they'd have to develop some sort of system that could diffrentiate people that are just using a lot of power and people who are just using a lot of power. This is something that power companies couldn't do to find marijuana growers so I wouldn't think they could do it in crypto.

It'd be horrible if they could do it, but I doubt it could be done effectively.

[HaXX0R1337]

This got me thinking. If governments wants to target Bitcoin farmers, they just have to implement the same kind of tactics as they have done with "Weed" farmers. <Obviously this will only work for medium to large operations>

I did not know that weed farming require a large amount of electricity because here in my country it is grown outside in the nature and not inside, there are alternative ways to counter these solutions like solar energy is a good option where you have a lot of sunshine but you need to invest more to control the farm temperature.

[stompix]

IF governments were to adopt such a strategy it would not be the end of bitcoin, it could easily be moved to a different method such as POS or even the difficulty could just be scaled down so that it can be mined with lower electricity usage.

You can't reduce electricity usage by "scaling" down difficulty.
People will add more and more miners as long as there is profit to be made, the only thing that truly dictates how much power all the miners are using is the block reward (+ tx fees) and the price per coin.

This would be very hard to do, it's not easy to pick out who is mining and who is just using a lot of power in their homes. So they'd have to develop some sort of system that could diffrentiate people that are just using a lot of power and people who are just using a lot of power. This is something that power companies couldn't do to find marijuana growers so I wouldn't think they could do it in crypto.

It'd be horrible if they could do it, but I doubt it could be done effectively.

It's pretty simple actually, you check the total kwh consumed a month and you pick up homeowners with more than 2000kwh per month. That's only for two s9 but it is also 6 times the average consumption in Italy.
Then you look at the hourly usage and if that guy is burning the same amount hourly continuously it's definitely a miner.

Marijuana growers have different patterns in consumption from day to night and with improvements (led bulbs) they've started to use less and less energy for a plant cycle. Miners face different problems, once the cost per Thash decreases the difficulty goes up and you need more miners to make the same money and you end up with the same power bill.

[loof99]

I think it will leads to big problem which is very serious problem because there are lots of system will be affected if there will be a energy supply for it.
I think if the government did this then there will be no more mining.