Nobody has any right to tell me what kind of math I can on processors I own powered by electricity that I bought.
https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-like-State-Certain-Condition/d...
You might have already waived your "right" to do whatever you want with the electricity you buy.
We regulate all sorts of things, and this would be a smart thing to regulate.
Electricity distribution and often production is partly to fully socialized almost everywhere, meaning 'it affects us all'.
If you live on an island, disconnected from everyone else, then you can do whatever you want.
I think you're unaware how isolated and segmented some of the global electrical grids are (even in well populated areas) that create the very off-peak idle production that allows mining to exist.
This is certainly the case in parts of China (rainy season hydro) and the US that must maintain capacity for instant peak usage but otherwise goes to waste.
It has to do with the fact that systems within a nation are integrated at an economic level, especially those that are socialized.
You can dig holes and fill them in your back yard to your heart's content, but you can't do something that impacts watersheds.
You can use electricity, but for certain uses it might be regulated, because in many instances the electricity production and distribution is socialized.
We invest billion in electricity generation to support industry and infrastructure, not to support wasteful speculation.
If someone wants to put up solar panels, or generate their electricity independently with no externalizations i.e. no pollution then go ahead. But otherwise, it's a giant waste.
People are literally paying slightly higher electricity bills to support speculation, not good.
Comparing the usage to China makes sense because each country’s consumption of energy for the purposes of mining Bitcoin also follows a similar power law distribution. We find that the vast majority of Bitcoin mining happens in China.
These types of arguments are based on bad reasoning and misuse of statistics. If you compare the usage of any small industry in the largest consumer country, it will likely dwarf the total energy usage of many smaller countries. I see similar tendencies in activist pieces that make population policy arguments without using per-capita analysis.