From wrecking the environment to making it harder to search for alien life, cryptocurrency mining has been blamed for a multitude of sins. But to cause time itself to slow down is a fresh charge and one which, on the surface, sounds impossible. Something strange is happening in Central Europe right now: clocks are running slow, and not by fractions of a second, but entire minutes. Could large scale crypto mining be responsible or is it being made a convenient scapegoat?
Also read:
Overclocked Miners May Be Slowing the Clocks
Ever since mid January, the Continental European Power System has been experiencing anomalies. This huge belt of 25 countries, running from Spain to Turkey and from Poland to the Netherlands, has been subject to “a continuous system frequency deviation from the mean value of 50 Hz” the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E). The location of the disturbance has been identified – Kosovo and Serbia – but the cause has not.
The power deviations that have been affecting electrical frequencies have had the weird knock-on effect of delaying clocks that calculate their time based on the frequency of the power system. As a result, these are running at “a delay of close to six minutes”. It’s unclear exactly how this slowdown manifests itself, over what period, and whether these clocks can be manually adjusted to show the correct time. What is clear is that the power drain responsible for this anomaly is huge: 113 GWh, which is equivalent to the power consumption of Greenland for six months. Central heating timers and oven clocks are among the systems affected.
Red lines show the main power lines in the European region responsible
The Search for a Culprit Intensifies
ENTSO-E is clearly unhappy about the missing power and its strange side effects. In fact it’s seething, but is literally powerless to act. The situation, it acknowledges, is largely a political one that would require the cooperation of the countries suspected of causing the huge power drain. On the Swiss Grid , the current deviation from 50 Hz can be viewed in real time. At the time of publication it was sitting at 49.970 Hz, causing a grid time deviation of 345 seconds. The site explains: “There are still many clocks which go by the frequency in the electricity grid. If the frequency is higher, they go faster. If the frequency is lower, they go more slowly.”
The question of what could be siphoning off electricity on such a grand scale remains unresolved. It could be a top secret project involving a particle accelerator akin to the Large Hadron Collider. It could be government impropriety or incompetence. Or it could be crypto miners. Suspicions are falling on the latter option. Electricity rates in Serbia and Kosovo are among Europe’s cheapest, with the price of mining one bitcoin in these regions to be $3,133, placing them on a par with China. “The first step [to resolving the issues] is to cease the deviation,” writes ENTSO-E. “The second step is to compensate for the missing amount of energy.” Crypto miners could yet be exonerated of all charges. But until the culprit can be identified, an enormous rogue mining operation remains a strong possibility.
Do you think crypto miners could be responsible for the power drain, or are they a convenient scapegoat? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Swiss Grid.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our section.
The post appeared first on .
Last week officials from the small town of Plattsburgh New York filed a moratorium request against bitcoin mining operations that currently reside in the town and future mining endeavors. The proposal was issued by the Mayor’s office and cites concerned over electricity use and energy consumption.
Also Read:
A Moratorium Filed Against bitcoin Miners in Plattsburgh
A few Plattsburgh politicians are concerned about bitcoin mining operating within the borders of the small American town. The town’s old paper mill is now occupied by a mining operation and residents from Plattsburgh have environmental concerns over energy consumption. Then on March 2 a has been proposed called §270-28-J under Chapter 270 which imposes a moratorium on commercial mining operations in the town of Plattsburgh. There will be a public hearing in regard to the discussion on March 15 at the Common Council Chambers.
“This local law shall impose a moratorium on applications or proceedings, or the issuance of approvals or permits for commercial cryptocurrency mining operations in the City of Plattsburgh,” explains the Mayor’s proposal. “The moratorium imposed by this local law shall be in effect for a period of eighteen (18) months from the effective date of this local law.”
Any firm, person, corporation, or other entity that shall establish, place, construct, erect or in any way site or locate a Commercial Cryptocurrency Mining operation described in this local law in the City of Plattsburgh in violation of the provisions of this Local Law shall be subject to, in addition to any penalties prescribed by state or local law, a civil penalty of not more than $1,000.00 for each day or part thereof during which such violation continues.
If They Employed More People Read Would Be More Favorable Towards the Business Model
Mayor Colin Read
This past February Mayor Colin Read explained to the how mining operations were flocking to his town and consumed 10 percent of the town’s power. Read told the publication he considers the miners to be a public nuisance. He said he would rather see operations that use that amount of electrical consumption have lots of employees in contrast to just machines. Read mentions the company Mold-Rite Plastics which consumes a lot of power but has over 200 employees. Read explains his issues stating:
The mining companies? They hire a security guard, and a guy who comes when something breaks.
The moratorium request will have to be deliberated in a public setting before Plattsburgh politicians can move forward. Mining operations within the area will likely defend their business operations in order for them to stay in business. Otherwise, if the Plattsburgh environmentalists and bureaucrats get their way it’s ‘lights out’ for mining operations within the town’s borders.
What do you think about the town officials from Plattsburgh New York wanting to shut down mining operations? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below.
Images via Pixabay, bitcoin.com, Wikipedia Commons, and AP.
At .com all comments containing links are automatically held up for moderation in the Disqus system. That means an editor has to take a look at the comment to approve it. This is due to the many, repetitive, spam and scam links people post under our articles. We do not censor any comment content based on politics or personal opinions. So, please be patient. Your comment will be published.
The post appeared first on .
