Cryptocurrency Miners Are Using Old Tires to Power Their Rigs (vice.com) 79
Christopher Malmo, writing for Motherboard: An entrepreneurial cryptocurrency mining company has just announced an unusual deal: it has partnered with a tire-based waste-to-energy company in the United States to power its mining computers. Standard American Mining and PRTI, a tire "thermal demanufacturing" company based in North Carolina, are powering graphics cards-based mining equipment to earn a range of alternative cryptocurrencies like Ethereum. Basically, they take used tires and heat them to a precise temperature, resulting in components like steel (from belted tires), carbon black, and a burnable fuel. That fuel is the energy source driving turbines to make electricity, which powers an onsite cryptocurrency mining farm. Taking advantage of an underutilized electricity source to run computers isn't groundbreaking, but the unusual set-up shows that cryptocurrency mining is now profitable enough to justify finding quite unconventional sources of cheap or new energy generation.
Aka "burning tires" (Score:1)
Sounds like a splendid idea.
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There was a high profile court case about this in New Zealand:
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The man who allegedly told Christine Rankin he felt uncomfortable when she moved as he could "distinguish her breast", today told the Employment Court he did describe her dress as "indecent" and "offensive".
Mark Prebble, head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, was giving evidence for the Crown on the eighth day of the Department of Work and Income boss' damages case.
In describing his first meeting with Mrs Rankin i
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So, we're going to burn tires -- which are pretty much inert, and produce a variety of toxic chemicals and nasty particulates -- all in order to create something that is completely useless. My counterproposal is that the gubmints "print" units of cryptocurrency without bothering with all the computing overhead and gives them away to each and every person on the planet on any birthday year that is a prime number. That'd make about as much sense.
I'll be turning 79 in a few months. 79 is a prime number. So
My counterproposal... (Score:5, Funny)
...is a #cryptocurrency called #AwesomCoin which would be powered by labor of small children harvested from impoverished villages.
Preferably working in a combination of coal and uranium mines - and oil rigs. Oil is needed cause uranium won't burn as easily on its own.
Also, where possible, whale and dolphin fat would be added to the mix - for flavoring.
From time to time, in order to increase the value of #AwesomCoin through magic, some of the children would be offered as human sacrifices to Kali, Quetzalcoatl, Beelzebub, Donald Trump and Santa.
Not necessarily in that order.
#AwesomCoin mining facilities would be built on a large swat of land presently used as rain forests, in cooperation with Russian and South American criminal cartels and oligarchies.
#AwesomCoin would be combined with an app where one could purchase and kill real life kittens through a variety of means - from sitting on them until they are crushed to throwing them against an oncoming train (other methods to be added).
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(*Throwing investment dollars*)
(*Removing all legal obstacles to fast-track this venture*)
-- Republicans
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The energy could go to supporting the local grid, using the computing power to process more useful calculations.
The problem isn't that Bitcoins are evil, it is just they are in a bubble, and people are wasting time and money on them. 16k a bitcoin, and still growing... Why would I actually buy anything with a bit coin, its growth is too fast to be useful to spend on anything else.
Re: REEEEEEEEE (Score:1)
Netscape, the browser so valuable you xant even remember uts name.
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Actually, one of the problems is that they're evil. They're explicitly designed to unnecessarily waste huge amounts of electricity. Might as well be a mad super-villain plotting to melt Greenland.
Where the rubber meets the... (Score:5, Funny)
...Silk Road?
Yeah, I got nothing.
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Crytpocurrency is literally a tire fire.
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In the Obama-era EPA this company would have been regulated out of existence.
Bullshit. Gasification, a technology which was commonly used during WWII, was not only allowed but encouraged during the Obama Administration.
In the Trump-era EPA it might be hailed as "MAGA" and allowed to pollute the environment.
Pollute the environment, how exactly?
I guess there can be no "happy medium" between those 2 extremes....
Maybe, instead of guessing and remaining ignorant, you could actually learn something. The alternative is to remain willfully ignorant.
Gasification [wikipedia.org]
The Fischer–Tropsch process [wikipedia.org]
"Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German, and it is all organized by the Italians."
That may be true but idiots abound, as you have so fervently pointed out.
Please consider taking your idiotic politics somewhere where people will si
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I usually take my old ones somewhere out in the woods or in a field remote...
Well, I guess this isn't TOO terrible...
...and douse them with diesel and light them, and then get away.
Wait, what? Why would you waste fuel, possibly start an out of control fire AND fill the air with toxic smoke? Just leave them there!
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yes, but how would AC then make an asinine statement.
only AC can start forest fires.
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Please tell me you're joking.
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You're right, it is.
But this is the normal tire recycling process. Instead of selling the syngas produced, they're burning it onsite in a turbine to produce electricity to run bitcoin miners.
They're just making the recycling of tires more profitable.
The very definition ... (Score:5, Funny)
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The very definition... of dirty money.
Sounds like there's a market for washing it...perhaps with a washing machine...
Hyperspeculation (Score:5, Interesting)
We can blame this on hyperspeculation in the value of cryptocurrencies. When these currencies become insanely valuable, it becomes profitable to get energy to mine them from insane sources.
Recall hyperinflation of the German Mark in the 1920s. At one point its value was so low that it made more sense to burn the notes than to use them to buy firewood. How long before it becomes profitable to burn actual bank notes to make electricity to mine bitcoin?
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How long before it becomes profitable to burn actual bank notes to make electricity to mine bitcoin?
I think we've found our new economics 'Nobel' Prize winner here.
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I think we've found our new economics 'IgNobel' Prize winner here.
FTFY ;-P
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> Religion (Particularly Christianity, but also Islam) and Corporatism are literally leading us to the extinction of the Human species.
Hyperbole much?
HOW _exactly_ are the religious people causing the extinction of the human species again???
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What you are describing is NOT Christianity, nor Islam.
> excuse that our actions have no consequences,
The Bible teaches The Law of Karma:
* Matthew 7:12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
* Matthew 26:52 "Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."
* Galatians 6:7-9 shares, "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap"
* 2 Corinthians 5
All hail the Springfield Tire Fire! (Score:4, Funny)
All hail the Springfield Tire Fire!
Cryptocurrency embiggens us all! They're the most cromulent currency!
This is just Thermal Plasma Gasification (Score:2)
Just what we need, tire fire power (Score:2)
Want to swipe some Bitcoin?Just follow the tower of oily black smoke and go in with guns blazing..
Here in Arizona, we use old tires to make an asphalt replacement that is longer lasting and quieter to drive on than the traditional material.
Wake me up (Score:2)
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Drunkulus, wake up!
Those people are burning tires to mine Bitcoins to buy Magic the Gathering cards!
Thermal recycling of tires (Score:2)
Cryptocurrency will propel humans into space ... (Score:1)
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ha, more sunlight falls on the ground than a thousand earth civilizations could use. it might propel the destruction of deserts, though after this current bubble pops bitcoin and "cryptocurrency" (really just virtual game tokens) might be unpopular for quite a while.
Enough power for Bartertown? (Score:1)