I always like it when mainstream medias like Radio-Canada talking about "the blockchain". This afternoon I heard an interview with the minister of energy of Quebec about the new directives given to Hydro-Quebec (the big monopoly producing Quebec's electricity) concerning bitcoin mining farms. The interview was quite elusive some I found an article in french on the same subject, and one in english.
Lately, a lot of companies, mainly asian (chinese), have reached out to Hydro-Quebec (HQ) for their electricity. It is well known that the hydroelectricity produced in Northern Quebec is cheaper that electricity produced from other sources (like fossile fuel). But these compagnies, call them giant mining pools, are asking for a lot of electricity. If all the demands where accepted, to total consumption would amount to 40% of HQ's current production (15 000 MWatts over 37 MWatts)! This is crazy!
Since HQ cannot supply that much juice, they have to be very selective. Under the new directives of the Quebec gouvernment, HQ will choose the projects that will give the most tax return and create the most jobs. The thing is, I doubt any of these project will ever create any descent job or give any appreciable tax return unless the industry is well reglemented, which I doubt is the case. Anyhow, since HQ is favorable to blockchain technology in general, because it might someday benefit them, they decided to allow 500 MWatts of their production for the cryptomining industry. Fortunatly, the price of this electricity will be higher, since the demand is so high, and the gouvernment will require some garanties.
It is a good start, but I think our gouvernements have to do better to slow the Proof-Of-Work madness. Proof-of-Work (POW) is the consensus algorithm currently securing most cryptocurrency blockchains in the world. This algorithm is very secure, but wastes a tremendous amount of electricity. If only our politicians could understand that there are alternatives to POW, like Proof-of-Stake, that does not use overwhelming amounts of electricity. The extra money earned from selling electricity to the POW mining farms could be used to fund research and initiatives using other consensus algorithms in the blockchain industry.
Seriously, this proof-of-work madness has to stop.