TD₿: Building a Zero Carbon Bitcoin Miner by Paul Prager with Nic Carter
TL;DR Bitcoin mining and nuclear energy are a match made in heaven.
Hey Bitcoiners,
In Alex Epstein’s new book “Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas--Not Less”, he writes that nuclear energy is the “cleanest and safest form of energy ever created.”
This might surprise some people given the negativity you often hear around nuclear energy from politicians and the media. Over the years, it has been mischaracterized as dangerous due to rare disasters like the Russian Chernobyl Disaster in 1986.
The truth is that nuclear energy has the ability to provide us with abundant and reliable clean energy.
Despite this fact, the US continues to shut down its nuclear power plants. Just a couple of weeks ago, an 800-Megawatt plant was shut down in Palisades, Michigan. On my count, that makes 12 major U.S. nuclear power plants that have permanently shut down since 2013.
One reason these plants have closed down is for economic reasons. Increased operating costs and low electricity prices have hurt their profitability. This is where Bitcoin miners could step in.
Bitcoin mining could use the clean excess energy provided by nuclear power plants to mine bitcoin, providing these power plants with another stream of revenue for their surplus electricity.
Paul Prager is the Co-founder and CEO of Bitcoin mining company Terawulf and is currently building a 300 MW nuclear-powered mining facility in Pennsylvania. He discusses the intersection of nuclear energy and Bitcoin mining in this conversation (05/02/2022).
Nuclear energy has the potential to provide abundant energy for all, a prospect that could enable unprecedented human flourishing and civilizational advance.
Bitcoin mining has the ability to help these nuclear power plants keep their doors open at a time when our society needs a source of clean, reliable energy.
Tick tock next block,
Cory Klippsten
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Quote of the Day
“I don't see it as improbable that down the road a Bitcoin miner will invest hundreds of millions of dollars into creating their own energy infrastructure and their own energy-production, or building a nuclear power plant.” - Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3
Meme of the Day
Finishing up Alex Epstein's "Fossil Future" which is extremely helpful in providing a comprehensive understanding of energy sources (benefits/costs) as well as reframing the energy/climate change discussion. Most notably, it lays bare the myopic "Zero Net Use" carbon argument and how "luxury belief" virtue signaling, first-world "ESG LARPers" (ht Marty Dent) prevent billions of our fellow human beings from pulling themselves up out of poverty. This is seen in IMF/developmental loans mandating inconsistent, expensive "green energy" and preventing the use of the same Fossil Fuel that built the first-world's climate-controlled, high-energy comfortable lifestyles. Glad to see Bitcoin add incentivizing decentralized energy development to it's myriad of other positive impacts on our world...