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ck | 8 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Most definitely USD but I’m sure Riot is making a superior spread compared to mining if they are turning off.
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sudocarlos | 8 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +1 
 They can just stay on instead? No requirement to shut off, the option is on them?
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ck | 8 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Im not 100% sure how it works but they get paid more for the electricity than they make with bitcoin. Society will always pay more for energy than miners. Bitcoin miners just set up shop where there is wasted energy.
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sudocarlos | 8 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Hmmm ok. I'm just thinking of a scenario where the agreements actually hurt the miners because the price of bitcoin is so much higher than was considered when the agreements were made. Thanks for your perspective
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GreginLapwai | 8 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 So grids like ERCOT are open or 'unregulated', meaning the spot price ($/MW) is the driving factor. This means the miners likely have break-even computations running for each miner type at the current BTC price and can adjust them on the fly.

A good scaling miner will be shutting off their most inefficient units first leaving the lowest J/TH for last. But when spot price spikes up they are "selling back" the electricity they pre-purchased, meaning they are not using it. IREN is so good at this that their price per bitcoin at one point was -$28k/BTC (yes, paid $28k for each Bitcoin mined).

This works on the reverse side, as price per MW drops to below $0, if they have a massive amount of miners, even inefficient ones, those can ramp up to absorb that negative priced power to mine.

Amazing grid balancing! I'd love to see it in action first hand.