Is Bitcoin a Waste of Electricity, or Something Worse?<br />Mr. Read said that Bitcoin mining now consumes about 10 percent of the city’s power, and<br />that is forcing Plattsburgh to buy a growing amount of extra electricity on the open market, at rates up to 100 times higher than its base cost.<br />“Enel has undertaken a clear path toward decarbonization and sustainable development and sees the intensive use of energy dedicated to cryptocurrency mining as an unsustainable practice<br />that does not fit with the business model it is pursuing,” the company, partly owned by the Italian government, said in a statement.<br />Some economists see evidence that people are playing video games instead of going to work, logging on instead of getting it on,<br />and plowing a growing share of their time, capital and natural resources into virtual products like social media, games and the latest fad: virtual currencies.<br />Mr. Read, who is also an economics professor, said he would rather sell the city’s<br />supply of cheap power to companies employing large numbers of people.
