this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
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Bitcoin

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Bitcoin is the currency of the Internet: a distributed, worldwide, decentralized digital money. Unlike traditional currencies such as dollars, bitcoins are issued and managed without any central authority whatsoever: there is no government, company, or bank in charge of Bitcoin. As such, it is more resistant to wild inflation, corrupt bankers and politicians. With Bitcoin, you can be your own bank.

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The Economist: Why Africa is crypto’s next frontier (www.economist.com)
submitted 1 year ago by SwingingKoala@discuss.tchncs.de to c/bitcoin@discuss.tchncs.de
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Without paywall: https://web.archive.org/web/20240308161113/https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2024/03/07/why-africa-is-cryptos-next-frontier

They are starting to get it:

Yet many of the continent’s renewable-energy projects are stalled because there are not enough local consumers who are able to buy electricity to make them financially viable. By offering themselves as buyers of last resort, crypto-miners can help to stabilise demand for power and ensure utilities turn a profit. In doing so, they might also incentivise the investment needed to provide electricity to the estimated 600m people in Africa, roughly half its population, who do not have access to power from the grid.

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[–] DinosaurThussy@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m not saying that increasing revenue inherently increases costs, just that it may provide a perverse incentive for power companies to cater to miners in the future rather than cater to locals.

[–] SwingingKoala@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago

This doesn't seem to make sense. "Cater to miners" means selling them power, miners flow towards the cheapest power, if locals compete with them for power prices go up and miners want to move their mining rigs to cheaper power sources. Locals currently don't have any power, there is no electric grid and no infrastructure, revenue from miners is what will get locals connected to the power grid.