1/ A tweetstorm about “Thermodynamic neutrality” and how a place like the province of Québec, can help makes blockchains more decentralized.
2/ Thermodynamic is at the core of the proof of work (POW) protocol. You have to invest in electricity in order to get coins/tokens. There is no way around the fact that hashing power requires electricity and that processors dissipate a lot of heat.
3/ Thermodynamic neutrality is a principle that states that anyone who wants to leverage electricity to do mining (or any other heavy processing tasks) on blockchains should have the same right and the same pricing deal as other (bigger) competitors.
4/ I believe Enthusiasts should start to stand for Thermodynamic neutrality in places like the province of Québec in Canada where there are excellent prices for certain industries like data centers.
http://www.hydroquebec.com/data-center/ cc @hydroquebec
spoiler alert —> US 2.48¢/kWh
5/ By enthusiasts, I mean all the geeks around the world who do mining from home, in their office, their bedroom, their garage and other funny places. (pics) https://bit.ly/2J8OaTQ
6/ The enthusiasts are passionate people. They do it because to they believe in the cause. THEY ARE THE DECENTRALIZED part of the blockchain.
7/ I repeat: ENTHUSIASTS ARE THE DECENTRALIZED part of the blockchain.
Without them, there is no buzz, no innovations, no Bitcoin, no Ethereum. No decentralization means no (POS) blockchains.
If it’s centralized, the ledger is merely a database.
8/ About the jobs creation argument. A KPMG study states that mining is creating fewer jobs compared to other industries. Fair enough.
9/ Do you know that people operating around 60 GPU make a BETTER living than those who earn the minimum wage (while having plenty of time to pursue other challanges)?
See for yourself here - https://bit.ly/2J8OaTQ
10/ Not only that, the government can empower entrepreneurs instead of employees.
These entrepreneurs do not require heavy governmental programs. They only need the same electricity rate leverage as the privileged players (see 3/).
11/ But you know, these do not count as “jobs.” It doesn't fit in any gov. criteria program. They will not be considered as new jobs by any standard measures.
You see the challenge? Government's statistics don’t track new solo entrepreneurs growth rates.
12/ Now, going back to the core subject: “Thermodynamic neutrality.” I think we can draw a parallel with the principle of “Net neutrality.”
13/ Net neutrality makes sure that ISPs (in Canada: Bell, Videotron, Rogers, Telus) do not throttle some apps/websites/data packets or give a higher bandwidth to some apps/websites (typically package that those ISPs own).
14/ It’s easy to see that ISPs promoting their own media content are bad for innovation. This is the perfect monopolistic strategy after all.
Per example, ISPs could make Netflix ‘slow’ while making their media content ‘fast’.
15/ The avg Joe consumer would just assume that Netflix sucks while the alternative is “much better.” Startups and online businesses could never thrive in a place where ISPs could dictate those rules. Every ind website would be at risk. That’s why “Net neutrality” is important.
16/ In a place where Thermodynamic neutrality is a given, one shall be able to say:
"Here I mine XYZ kW/h. Here are the invoices proving I bought the equipment. Please give me this great electricity rate as well.
17/ Not only that, enthusiasts want a service as easy as changing our postal address online -
http://www.hydroquebec.com/residential/customer-space/moving/change-address.html
The take away is: It should not be a burden to request to be a miner to get the most advantageous electric rate.
18/ Some prefer to run a SPA in their backward, some prefer to run miners.
Read my conclusion here:
GHOST_URL/thermodynamic-neutrality/
19/ Going back to present, it's June 2018.
20/ I hope Hydro-Quebec and whoever is caring about this case at the provincial level can see the bigger picture here.
21/ It’s not only about US (the province of Quebec). It’s about making sure that no one, no companies or no countries take control of those decentralized networks.
22/ Why not become the example that others would want to follow?
23/ We are watching:
Your humble miner enthusiast,
Pascal Andy
P.S. Here is another post called When crypto-currencies, smart contracts, IoT, AI sleep together you might enjoy.
