I remember a time during a thanksgiving decades back where the power kept cutting out because there was ice on the lines and it was constantly causing issues. I was younger than ten and it came back on. Sitting in the kitchen I encouraged everyone not to use the power, as we needed to conserve it to cook the turkey. My grandpa scoffed, “no, we need to use the power while we have it”. It took me many years to understand what he meant. I didn’t know power was created on demand and was otherwise wasted. I thought the outlet was some king of unlimited battery for our toys and televisions that never ran low.

But the power that comes to our devices doesn’t come from some battery. It’s created on demand as the network of electricity consumers need it to operate their various appliances and consumer gadgets.

This is the area where the thought of bitcoin miners being wasteful comes about. The public is like my preteen self, thinking the wall is a battery. Not understanding that electricity can only be transported so far, and that because of how it is used and produced, often isn’t produced to the maximum want of the consumer around the clock, but when the operators of the grid estimate the load demand will be at its peak.

Anyways…