Why Africa is crypto’s next frontier
www.economist.com
Cheap power is fuelling a new sort of mining boom

Without paywall: https://web.archive.org/web/20240308161113/https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2024/03/07/why-africa-is-cryptos-next-frontier

They are starting to get it:

Yet many of the continent’s renewable-energy projects are stalled because there are not enough local consumers who are able to buy electricity to make them financially viable. By offering themselves as buyers of last resort, crypto-miners can help to stabilise demand for power and ensure utilities turn a profit. In doing so, they might also incentivise the investment needed to provide electricity to the estimated 600m people in Africa, roughly half its population, who do not have access to power from the grid.

  • SwingingKoala@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
    4·
    10 months ago

    Miners pay power companies for energy they couldn’t sell otherwise, which allows the power companies to grow and build local infrastructure. I’m not sure why you fantasize that increasing revenue increases cost, it’s bizarre.

    • DinosaurThussy [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      I’m not saying that increasing revenue inherently increases costs, just that it may provide a perverse incentive for power companies to cater to miners in the future rather than cater to locals.

      • SwingingKoala@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
        4·
        10 months ago

        This doesn’t seem to make sense. “Cater to miners” means selling them power, miners flow towards the cheapest power, if locals compete with them for power prices go up and miners want to move their mining rigs to cheaper power sources. Locals currently don’t have any power, there is no electric grid and no infrastructure, revenue from miners is what will get locals connected to the power grid.