Quote from: bbc.reporter on Today at 05:23:26 AM

However, how can it be just virtue signalling?

Because Bitcoin mining is in no way related to this energy crisis(result of failed policies), a ban against it will in no way reduce any amount of consumption/ increase energy supply where it matters. On a surface level people just connect 2 dots Mining energy intensive + energy crisis(result of failed policies) = ban, but in reality no one can afford to invest heavily into ASICs while using some of the most expensive energy on the planet without going bankrupt already.

Mining goes where a lot of cheap excess energy is available, it isnt taking energy from where its needed, because it would be too expensive to do so. The only places where mining is more profitable than providing energy to an undersupplied grid, are places where the market is completely distorted trough artificial government policies that make no sense in practice.

Just spending time talking about Bitcoin mining during an energy crisis(result of failed policies) should be a scandal in itself, because its time thats taken away from implementing/discussing measures to actually solve this mess. But like pooya already said, its easier to find a scapegoat to blame everything on, than to explain to the public that this mess was the result of years of failed government policies and that theyre still unwilling to fix them. So distraction it is. Maybe the term crisis shouldnt even be applied here, because its distracting from the actual cause.

Quote from: bbc.reporter on Today at 05:23:26 AM

The problem of the costs and low supply is very real and it might destroy their economy. This is not a problem where the government can say it will fix without really fixing it. This is not a problem that they can ignore. They really need to fix it.

But theyre not doing anything to fix it, all theyre doing is:

1. Printing more money during times of inflation and shortages to combat inflation and shortages - Makes the issues worse.

2. Implementing price and consumption controls - Price controls could bankrupt energy suppliers, or make the supply issues worse, depending on how its implemented; Consumption controls will probably lead to an over complicated legal framework that wastes months on implementation and has little effect in practice. Consumption controls for companies would lead to an increase in production costs and reduced output again - terrible for inflation, supply issues and the job market.

So we have a mix of measures that increase inflation, make supply issues worse or threaten energy suppliers and months wasted of finding complicated ways to micromanage people that already cant afford to pay their energy bills and already started to reduce their consumption where possible, because they had too. When the only solution can be to find ways to increase the supply of energy, everything else is utopia. You cant print or ration your problems away on a big scale. Yet were still seeing countries only talking about saving on energy, shutting down reactors and refusing to use politically unwanted technologies to increase their energy production, while at the same time messing up regulations for renewables like me and oleo already highlighted above. There is no fix in sight, i would prepare for inflation and high energy prices to be here for a while. On an individual level the only way out is to get as independent from centrally planned infrastructure as possible.

Quote from: bbc.reporter on Today at 05:23:26 AM

Will bitcoin fix this?

Bitcoin has nothing to do with how central authorities planned and messed up their infrastructure. Produce your own energy and use Bitcoin so you dont have to be completely dependent on mismanaged infrastructure - thatll probably bankrupt large parts of the population and puts their fate completely in the hand of government, if nothing changes soon.

Quote from: bbc.reporter on Today at 05:23:26 AM

Also, I agree that decision to mine and not to mine will be handled economically, however, for some miners, this problem might be a decision of to steal electricity and not to steal electrcity.

Theft is already outlawed, a general ban of mining wouldn't be justified and doesnt make any sense.