The First US City Government to Mine Bitcoin? Fort Worth, Texas
source link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/22/05/01/0129225/the-first-us-city-government-to-mine-bitcoin-fort-worth-texas
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The First US City Government to Mine Bitcoin? Fort Worth, Texas
The First US City Government to Mine Bitcoin? Fort Worth, Texas (cnbc.com) 57
Posted by EditorDavid
on Sunday May 01, 2022 @10:34AM from the oil-rigs-vs-mining-rigs dept."Fort Worth, Texas, is now the first city government in the United States to mine bitcoin," reports CNBC.
"[A]nd in an almost poetic devotion to the initiative, Mayor Mattie Parker oversaw the construction of a small mining farm in City Hall."
Three Bitmain Antminer S9 mining rigs will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the climate-controlled information technology wing of Fort Worth City Hall. The city says the miners will be hosted on a private network to minimize the security risk.... Each of the program's three machines will consume the same amount of energy as a household vacuum cleaner, according to city estimates. While the mayor doesn't expect the three miners to be major money makers, the cost of electricity needed for the program is expected to be offset by the value of bitcoin mined.... To make it happen, the city has teamed up with a few key partners, including the Texas Blockchain Council, which donated the three mining rigs (each valued at roughly $600 apiece), and Luxor Technologies, a mining pool, which lets a single miner combine its hashing power with thousands of other miners all over the world to increase their chances of earning bitcoin.... After six months, Fort Worth will re-assess and decide whether to sink real cash into building out a mine . Luxor's VP of business development argues that Fort Worth's move "is setting an example and effectively de-risking both bitcoin mining and bitcoin treasury strategies for every other mayor in the country."
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what is the point of this ?
doesn't the mayor have more important things to do ?
couldn't whatever effort being used for this completely, totally worthless endeavor be used for something productive ?
wtf is wrong with people ?
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FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)
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Ah, yes. That one is strong with the stupid. You can sell almost anything to some people using it.
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Yeah, from the same party who passed a law allowing the rapist to sue the victim if she gets an abortion.
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and they're throwing it around to buy off Texas politicians. This is him signaling that he's open for business, i.e. bribes.
In Arizona there's a small town (Page?) that is on the brink of having it's water cut off in favor of local Agribusinesses. The amount of water involved is a pittance, but the agribusinesses still want it because every drop is profit in their eyes. Like that old verse in the bible about leaving some grapes for the peasants but in reverse.
Texas is going to face the same but for power. The bitcoin miners aren't gonna wanna stop making money just because there's rolling blackouts. The reason they're attracted to Texas is the extreme corruption coupled with a voting public that seems A-OK with it means they can set up shop, make a mess of the already strained power grid, and then when the shit hits the fan they'll get their power while everyone else gets screwed. They know that if they tried that B.S. in any other state they'd get kicked out (or in the case of the South they don't have the infrastructure for it)
Basically, crypto miners are parasites, only able to exist because of lax financial regulation and heavy gov't subsidies on power combined with politicians willing to take risks with the grid (and people's lives during extreme weather events). But America is rapidly becoming a non-functional kleptocracy, so we're gonna attract these kind of parasites. The whole country needs to political equivalent of a flea dip.-
Basically, crypto miners are parasites, only able to exist because of lax financial regulation and heavy gov't subsidies on power combined with politicians willing to take risks with the grid (and people's lives during extreme weather events). But America is rapidly becoming a non-functional kleptocracy, so we're gonna attract these kind of parasites. The whole country needs to political equivalent of a flea dip.
And that is the core of the matter. If crypto miners had to pay realistic prices, including paying for their environmental impact, none would exist. Well, in a sense proof-of-work crypto-"currencies" are one of the last "Climate change? What climate change?" parties to be celebrated before things start to get really, really dark.
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Hey, hey hey, let's not bring externalized costs into this, shall we? Next thing you know you'll be saying stuff like "privatize the profits, socialize the losses" and that way lies madness and... socialism [youtube.com] (cue dun dun dun music).
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Texas' congress is part-time with low stipends. Texas' congressmen are very cheap to bribe (aka campaign contributions). Too cheap. Gary Bradley proved that for just $1M in the 80's a person could get insanely unconstitutional legislation passed in Texas. For instance the creation of a local government that was effectively an arm of the state with a Governor appointed board in order to get out of having to obey development rules of the City of Austin. A city where the residents couldn't vote for their
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Really this. If I remember right uber/lyft spent 100M on ad campaigns to convince austin voters fingerprinting was not necessary as part of the background check. The ad campaign failed, and they lost. But did they? Nope, they spent around 1M each on "lobbying" and got the lege to pass a law overriding austin's. https://www.vox.com/the-highli... [vox.com] I'm sure uber/lyft regret bothering with democracy. They could have saved 100M by going straight to the oligarchs.
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That whole thing is fractally stupid. Like, every time you zoom in, you get more stupid in different shapes.
Seminole County, Florida was the first in The United States to mine bitcoin, under Joel Greenberg's direction.
Does that count? From TFA:
The goal? To mine cryptocurrency for Greenberg, not county tax payers.
Also:
He started a fire doing it, (a power surge from the machines caused a fire, which resulted in $98,000 in damages). It's a hilarious story.
I'll now skip over the outer levels and just jump right
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No argument with the variable levels of stupidity or corruption, but The first US government region (we're talking counties vs. cities) to do it under authorized direction from the elected (county) official tax collector at the time was Seminole County, under authorized direction at that moment, never mind ulterior moments only to be discovered later.
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Hmm. Interesting idea. It definitely fits here, but by far not only here.
I have seen some electrical "wiring" done by the stupid. If you work according to code, a lot of things have to go wrong in addition for a fire to start. If you ignore that code so save some money, that is not true anymore. There is a reason for that code and it is not generate business for electricians.
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Well, there is a reason that Florida Man is a meme. And, along those lines, Texas... 'nuff said.
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Yeah but Florida's retardation is somewhat contained and limited. The problem is everything is bigger in Texas.
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what is the point of this ?
Simple. People in a position of power can:
a) Buy some Bitcoin
b) Do something to say "Bitcoin will make you rich!"
c) Sell Bitcoin from (a) after price rises due to (b)If Bitcoin doesn't rise then no biggie, the taxpayer is footing the bill. Move along to the next scam.
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Why aren't cities doing more of this. They could sell lemonade, pump your gas, and produce movies. Anything is possible when you can spend from the city coffers and justify it that it might make a net profit.
The main reason I pay taxes (other than the obvious one is that I'm forced to) is that I expect certain services from a government that can't practically be performed any other way. Zoning, building permits, and other high level decisions are the traditional scope of a local government. Running a bitcoi
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