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What Happened at Congress’ Bitcoin Energy Hearing?

The Breakdown

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Bitcoin Mining

Critics often consume that the energy expended by miners is either stolen from more productive use cases or results in increased energy consumption. But because of inefficiencies in the energy market, bitcoin miners are incentiveied to utilize non rival energy that may otherwise be wasted or underutilized. Grid operators love this, as they reckon with increasingly unstable grids due to an influx of wind and solar. And far from driving up prices, if a miner is buying energy that no one else wants, he is actually fortifying the grid.

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