And the "whiteholes" thing, wouldn't it better mimic the Bitcoin nature if location for mining wasn't important, the only things that matter being your hashing power and the profit margin of running the miners? (perhaps part of the gameplay would involve protecting your mining cells, that are more expensive (either in energy,cash or in time to create) than other types of cells, and roaming the environment in search of places with better temperature (for reducing energy wastage) and better sources of auxiliary energy (sunnier places if the cells run on solar power, or places where some plant that produces some chemical "fuel" grows more easilly etc); you can consider the two different types of "energy" (the game BTC, and the Sun, or chemicals or whatever) as somthing kinda analog to food and air, each type does somthing different, life forms can live without one or the other for a small period of time, but both are essential for the long term survival of individuals)
Energy gathering works by diffusion. In short, the temperatural difference will be equalized until the cells and the square it is occupying are equal.
In fact, I just come up with a new idea:
Instead of the energy usage going directly to the game, players will play a 10% fee on the game price in order to play. They will get 90% of them back, regardless of how the energy is used. However, they can shift the distribution of energy so that it could be a profitable operation. Thus, the idea of transporter cells dropping energy into the respective players' black hole. (Reverse diffusion is how transporter cells stockpile white pools)
I will also make a big change: work produced will become heat. The heat will be dispersed twice the cell's size. Eventually, the game will end in cells not being able to operate because they are unable to acquire more energy, as energy distribution are all even.