I stumbled across this thread on Twitter earlier this morning and thought it would be a good one to share with you freaks on this beautiful Friday since it sparks a pretty interesting debate + thought experiment. I must note, these two screenshots are from separate sections of the thread, so definitely check out the whole thing to get the full context of the conversation.
The conversation was sparked by Upstream Data's tweet, which flaunted another one of their beautiful mining rigs taking advantage of natural gas (which would have otherwise been wasted and sent into the atmosphere) to mint fresh bitcoins. What roving Bitcoin mining operations are able to provide is the ability for energy producers to liquidate their excess supply on location. This is supply that usually gets released into the atmosphere without ever being put to productive use. I really like the term Jonathan and Bob come up with, "Energy buyer of last resort".
For years, energy producers have been burning off excess supply, wasting precious resources that should be utilized to their fullest extent, especially considering their effect on the environment. The problem to date with this excess energy has been the fact that it is too expensive to transport to make it worthwhile for the producers. Bitcoin mining incentivizes ambitious entrepreneurs to take advantage of this fact and drive that transportation cost to zero as they are more than willing to show up on location. Buying the excess energy at extremely low prices, yielding the producers profit they would have otherwise never seen, and contributing to the security of the Bitcoin network while being rewarded in the process and hopefully making a profit.
Bitcoin is a BOON for energy efficiency. I would seriously question the competency of anyone who tells you otherwise.
All of the tutorials from our recent Lightning residency are now online, along with slides. Thanks again to our speakers @alexbosworth @Chris_Stewart_5 @Snyke @eiaine @JackMallers @juscamarena @LightningK0ala.https://t.co/vGMykG7Vqt
— Chaincode Labs (@ChaincodeLabs) November 8, 2018
Resident demos will be uploaded soon.
Bummed you missed out on the Chaincode Labs Lightning Residency a few weeks ago? Well turn that frown upside down and peep all of the talks and presentations here.
This is a first step in clarifying the internal interfaces, but hopefully a step in making the project maintainable in the long run. Still a long way to go until full separation.
— MarcoFalke (@MarcoFalke) November 9, 2018
Here's a late addition to today's issue. This merge is a big step towards a future in which Bitcoin development may become much more efficient as the Bitcoin Core team attempts to separate the wallet from the node in their implementation. I am certainly no expert when it comes to Bitcoin development, but this refactoring process has been discussed for years now. It's great to see progress being made towards a goal that may make Bitcoin more robust in the future.
Cheers, ryanofsky!
Final thought...
One time, when I was on a skiing trip with my family in high school, my brother tried to show off in front of me and my cousin by running and jumping into the hot tub but he wound up slipping on some ice upon launch and throw his rib cage into the rail of the hot tub steps. I laughed so hard I pissed myself. That's not the last time I pissed in a hot tub though. Enjoy your weekend, freaks!
