Cryptocurrency Mining Blamed For Electricity Outages in Iran

[tim0901]

Summary

According to reports from Iranian media and energy industry officials, cryptocurrency mining has led to electricity shortages in both urban and rural areas. For example Tehran - the capital - has seen daily power cuts over the last two weeks.

 

Insufficient electricity supplies have resulted in the burning of dirty heavy oil products for power, which has caused large amounts of smog across major cities.

 

Bitcoin mining is a big thing in Iran, thanks to tax exemptions and cheap power boosting their profits. However, mining is forbidden by law during times of peak power consumption, with all cryptocurrency miners required to register with the government. This then gives an incentive to not register, so as to not be fined for mining during those times, as well as to use the lower residential electricity price.

Quote

Mostafa Rajabi-Mashhadi, spokesman of Iranian Electricity Industry Union, said on Friday in an interview with the news agency IRNA that bitcoin miners were using more than 300 megawatts of electricity “illegally” every day to mine cryptocurrencies, including bitcoins, which currently trade at more than $30,000.

The spokesman also promised that "illegal cryptocurrency mining centres" would be tracked down and fined for "damage done to the power grid". In fact, over 1600 illegal cryptocurrency mining farms have been shut down in Iran over the last 18 months, which were collectively using over 250MW of electricity.

 

According to estimates by Cambridge university, it is estimated that mining Bitcoin alone is using ~13GW of power worldwide, or ~110TWh per year. This is equivalent to the combined output of thirteen nuclear power stations, or the yearly power consumption of The Netherlands. For comparison: that much electricity could power the UK for 4 and a half months, or the entirety of the US for 10 days.

Quote

Each bitcoin transaction uses around 657.39 kWh of electricity, the equivalent of 59 days of electricity for an average British household, the Daily Telegraph reported on March 1, 2020.

 

My thoughts

As crypto mining gets more and more popular, I can only see this becoming a bigger issue. Bitcoin alone is already using more power than not-insignificant countries, which has significant environmental concerns when people outsource their mining to countries with cheap, dirty electricity. As it says in the article: “massive income is earned by some but people’s share from it is air pollution and power cuts".

 

Imo, issues like this will only accelerate the race to regulate cryptocurrencies. Just not necessarily in the way (or for the reason) that people have traditionally discussed it.

 

Sources

https://iranintl.com/en/iran/cryptocurrency-mining-blamed-electricity-outages-iran

https://www.coindesk.com/iranian-authorities-close-1620-illegal-cryptocurrency-mining-farms-report

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2019/8/5/irans-government-recognises-cryptocurrency-mining-with-caveat

[Kanna]

Classic iran (not really just trying to make a joke) that is like when parents blame you for the wifi not working

[Alireza]

true AF

my sister had an important test today and internet went down more then 5 times in just 1 hour

and my family just keep blaming me for not being able to fix it because I'm a software engineer and they think everything is my fault and the only person that can fix electronics is me

the main internet data center in Iran is located in Milad Tower (a skyscraper at the heart of Tehran) and internet has been connecting and disconnecting multiple time since yesterday because of power shortage

also taxes and electricity bill is cheap compare to other country's

not us

and unfortunately we stock in this rabbit hole

sorry for my English

[Kanna]

20 minutes ago, Alireza said:

true AF

my sister had an important test today and internet went down more then 5 times in just 1 hour

and my family just keep blaming me for not being able to fix it because I'm a software engineer and they think everything is my fault and the only person that can fix electronics is me

the main internet data center in Iran is located in Milad Tower (a skyscraper at the heart of Tehran) and internet has been connecting and disconnecting multiple time since yesterday because of power shortage

also taxes and electricity bill is cheap compare to other country's

not us

and unfortunately we stock in this rabbit hole

sorry for my English

I can relate when wifi or something goes out parents blame me

[Brooksie359]

Miners back at it again sucking up all the electricity lol. And people say that mining doesn't have a significant impact on global energy consumption. Maybe people can make a new cryptocurrency that doesn't waste vast amounts of energy. 

[kakik09]

Cryptocurrency is just plain cancer. Period. 

[BuckGup]

59 minutes ago, kakik09 said:

Cryptocurrency is just plain cancer. Period. 

It really isn't. I suggest fully educating yourself on it then formulating an opinion. If people are concerned about frivolous power usage we need to ban all TVs, consoles, and gaming PCs as they don't contribute nearly as much to society as crypto does. 

[Orangeator]

1 hour ago, Brooksie359 said:

Maybe people can make a new cryptocurrency that doesn't waste vast amounts of energy. 

There is one, it's called Stellar Lumens, or XLM. It's on the rise atm. 

[Lurick]

1 hour ago, BuckGup said:

It really isn't. I suggest fully educating yourself on it then formulating an opinion. If people are concerned about frivolous power usage we need to ban all TVs, consoles, and gaming PCs as they don't contribute nearly as much to society as crypto does. 

But I am entitled to GPU!!! Gaming only creates electricity, it is not bad!!!

 

 

2 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

Miners back at it again sucking up all the electricity lol. And people say that mining doesn't have a significant impact on global energy consumption. Maybe people can make a new cryptocurrency that doesn't waste vast amounts of energy. 

Because gaming produces energy right? And the data centers hosting content and people streaming that data just makes energy too right?

[Salv8 (sam)]

3 hours ago, tim0901 said:

~13GW of power worldwide, or ~110TWh per year. This is equivalent to the combined output of thirteen nuclear power stations

damn thats enough to power at least 10 DeLoreans with a bit to spare.

this also means that the doc figured out how to condense a ENTIRE 100% EFFICIENT nuclear facility into the space no bigger then a bag.

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, Lurick said:

But I am entitled to GPU!!! Gaming only creates electricity, it is not bad!!!

 

 

Because gaming produces energy right? And the data centers hosting content and people streaming that data just makes energy too right?

I really hate it when people make that dumb comparison. Energy being used for Entertainment is actually doing something by providing Entertainment. Mining accomplishes nothing other than wastes a ton of energy to gain some imaginary currency. Also using a TV or computer consumes way less power than mining rigs that have many gpus running 24/7. Sure if I was watching 20 tvs and had 13 computers running all so I could be entertained then yeah that would be wasteful but I don't for obvious reasons. My question is why create a cryptocurrency that is extremely wasteful and consumes a ton of power when all that is being produced is an imaginary currency? When it comes to Entertainment there is a reason why the things cost so much energy and they try and reduce power consumption of what it takes to provide that Entertainment all the time. The same isn't true for most cryptocurrency. In fact it is the opposite with them increasing the difficulty of mining and as a result energy consumption. 

[bit]

3 hours ago, BuckGup said:

It really isn't. I suggest fully educating yourself on it then formulating an opinion. If people are concerned about frivolous power usage we need to ban all TVs, consoles, and gaming PCs as they don't contribute nearly as much to society as crypto does. 

LMAO BRO COME ON BRO COME ONNNNN

[cj09beira]

41 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I really hate it when people make that dumb comparison. Energy being used for Entertainment is actually doing something by providing Entertainment. Mining accomplishes nothing other than wastes a ton of energy to gain some imaginary currency. Also using a TV or computer consumes way less power than mining rigs that have many gpus running 24/7. Sure if I was watching 20 tvs and had 13 computers running all so I could be entertained then yeah that would be wasteful but I don't for obvious reasons. My question is why create a cryptocurrency that is extremely wasteful and consumes a ton of power when all that is being produced is an imaginary currency? When it comes to Entertainment there is a reason why the things cost so much energy and they try and reduce power consumption of what it takes to provide that Entertainment all the time. The same isn't true for most cryptocurrency. In fact it is the opposite with them increasing the difficulty of mining and as a result energy consumption. 

is it that dumb though, the same way you are arbitrarily ignoring any value in crypto he was making the same comment about the value of entertainment. there are many diverse uses for crypto that make it very much a useful thing, it can be used to avoid the use of your own country's coin if for some reason its not advantageous to do so like you needing to make a international transfer, as many times in poor countries they run out of dollars which leads to many problems

[Moonzy]

47 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

when all that is being produced is an imaginary currency?

which is very valuable and feeds families, yes

 

to each their own, i suppose

[wamred]

Yeah I don't see this going well. 

[TetraSky]

When you think about it... That's certainly a lot of power that was simply wasted on this shit.

[SteveGrabowski0]

7 hours ago, kakik09 said:

Cryptocurrency is just plain cancer. Period. 

And designed to keep consuming more and more electricity, absolute fucking cancer.

[Brooksie359]

3 hours ago, cj09beira said:

is it that dumb though, the same way you are arbitrarily ignoring any value in crypto he was making the same comment about the value of entertainment. there are many diverse uses for crypto that make it very much a useful thing, it can be used to avoid the use of your own country's coin if for some reason its not advantageous to do so like you needing to make a international transfer, as many times in poor countries they run out of dollars which leads to many problems

No I didn't arbitrarily ignore the importance of cryptocurrency. I do not believe it is important but I already addressed the case if someone does believe it is truly necessary. If it is something that is needed then make it so it doesn't use a ton of energy to produce. If cryptocurrency didn't waste a large amount of energy to mine most people wouldn't care. But the problem is that it uses a huge amount of energy and for no valid reason either. 

[Brooksie359]

3 hours ago, Moonzy said:

which is very valuable and feeds families, yes

 

to each their own, i suppose

No it isn't valuable. It is not worth the energy cost. These people are scaling up with huge mining farms just so they can make a decent profit and they are breaking power grids. This is so wasteful and there are so many better ways to make money. 

[pas008]

oh wow the irony

cancer waste etc etc

but gaming ok cause of entertainment but crypto cant be entertaining to see if they get rich

people have bought cars houses business with their crypto just like gamers do with their earnings

 

[Beskamir]

On 1/13/2021 at 12:07 PM, kakik09 said:

Cryptocurrency is just plain cancer. Period. 

For the most part I agree. There are some use cases and some currencies are better than others (the ones that actually function as currencies and not investments) but most of them are trash.

[Mark Kaine]

On 1/13/2021 at 10:14 PM, Lurick said:

Because gaming produces energy right?

This an embarrassingly bad comparison. 

 

1 gamer typically uses 1 gpu. 

 

1 miner typically uses hundreds or thousands gpus. 

 

How does that compare? hint: it does not. 

[WkdPaul]

TIL my PC (bought from crypto) is imaginary.

[pas008]

13 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

This an embarrassingly bad comparison. 

 

1 gamer typically uses 1 gpu. 

 

1 miner typically uses hundreds or thousands gpus. 

 

How does that compare? hint: it does not. 

so whats your point?

is what they do with 1 or 100 gpus any of your business if they bought them?

same with power consumption if they pay for it

 

[WkdPaul]

24 minutes ago, pas008 said:

so whats your point?

is what they do with 1 or 100 gpus any of your business if they bought them?

same with power consumption if they pay for it

 

Technically, Iran has crypto farm regulations, and if you're not registered, it's considered and illegal operation.

 

Kinda makes sense, if you're a business then you need to follow local regulation, even if it means losing part of your earnings (not mining during peak hours). IMO it's better to make less than to risk losing the equipment in a gov raid. The article mentions 1600 illegal mining farms (that's a LOT), and I'm guessing not all of them were 100 cards farms as that wouldn't add up, so they probably count people mining with 2-3 cards in there.

 

Still not worth losing your equipment over a few BTC fractions IMO.

 

EDIT ; BTW, I'm not saying crypto has to die, it has it's place IMO, and people should be able to do whatever they want with their hardware, but in the case of Iran, it seems there's an issue with electricity supply, and I think that's fair to assume high consumption that isn't essential be paused.