
City Passes the First Bitcoin Mining Ban in the US - dsr12
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xk4qv/bitcoin-ban-plattsburgh-coinmint-mining
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adrianmonk
At first I was going to ask why the city was sticking its nose in people's
private business and why they care what they're using that electricity for.
But it seems that they aren't doing it for that reason, and residents are
being pretty severely negatively affected.

On a side note, the city's goal was to use cheap electricity to lure industry
to town, and their policy did exactly what they tried to. Seems like they
didn't exactly plan out what would happen if they succeeded.

~~~
crazygringo
> _and their policy did exactly what they tried to._

In a way. Obviously their goal was growth: to attract industry whose wages and
hopefully some profits would go back into the local economy. That's not going
to happen with Bitcoin mining. If 200 local jobs had been created, then the
story would be different.

~~~
adrianmonk
They were probably looking for a specific type of growth (one that includes
jobs) but failed to specify. Oops, but lesson learned.

But there's also a second issue: even if the bitcoin operation had brought
jobs, it still used enough power to raise everyone's electric bills by
$100-200 a month. That's huge, and it's not obvious that it's even worth it.

Of course, you can argue that if a business had high labor costs, it never
would have expanded as much as or as quickly as the bitcoin mining businesses
did.

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bcheung
Just change the price of electricity or make it tiered. Problem solved. Making
a law seems overkill and a bit draconian. What business is it of the
government what you do with your computer if you aren't doing anything
malicious or immoral? Ensuring a blockchain stays secure and updates faster is
a legitimate service.

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bighi
I just hope they start banning it everywhere. And follow through with
enforcing it.

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milesvp
While they're at it they should ban tvs and computer video. video games are
definitely a no-no too. They all waste so much electricity! /s

Do not presume to dictate what others do. If there really are negative
externalities set regulation to price those externalities in. At worst create
step functions in pricing to discourage behaviors above some typical
threshold. But outright banning something that others find utility in just
because reasons is a dangerous game.

~~~
itsok_itsnotok
I’ve been pretty bullish on cryptocurrencies for a number of years, but it has
to be acknowledged that it’s not _if_ there are externalities, there _are_
legitimate real world externalities that need to be considered. The article
says that some residents of Plattsburgh have seen their electric bills go up
by $100 or $200. Many of those residents will not see significant offsetting
benefits.

Plattsburgh, New York as of the census of 2010: “The median income for a
household in the city was $28,846 … About 13.6% of families and 23.1% of the
population were below the poverty line, including 20.0% of those under age 18
and 13.0% of those age 65 or over.”[0] The income levels in federal poverty
guidelines [1] are pretty low so there are very likely a number of households
in the city that are above but near the guideline. However, it isn’t necessary
to get bogged down by federal poverty definition to acknowledge that some
folks are going to have a hard time with unexpected energy bills.

For a while I worked as a manager of a program that helps low income
households with their utility bills. I can tell you from experience that if a
fixed income senior or low income family were to suddenly receive a utility
bill that was $200 higher than they were expecting, they would face serious
hardship. Even as a somewhat comfortable working family with two incomes, my
household finances would be thrown into a bit of disarray if we suddenly had
to pay substantially more per month for electricity and I wouldn’t be too
happy as rate payer if that increase came with no benefit for me.

The utility can’t just decide on a new rate schedule and start billing it,
they have to go through a process. The process for setting utility rates is
typically a protracted and expensive affair. I am not as familiar with rate
cases in the eastern states, but per the NY State website it looks like it
takes about a year [2]. If folks can’t pay their utility bills now, it’s not
going to get easier.

City leaders see that their neighbors are having a difficult time so it seems
reasonable to put a hold on mining activities until they can come to an
equitable solution. It is unfair to other rate payers if they are being asked
to effectively subsidize mining activities.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plattsburgh_(city)%2C_New_York...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plattsburgh_\(city\)%2C_New_York#Demographics)
[1]
[https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/18/2018-00...](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/18/2018-00814/annual-
update-of-the-hhs-poverty-guidelines) [2]
[http://www3.dps.ny.gov/W/PSCWeb.nsf/0/364D0704BEEC5B7D852578...](http://www3.dps.ny.gov/W/PSCWeb.nsf/0/364D0704BEEC5B7D85257856006C56B3)

