Computational parasites and hydropower

A political ecology of Bitcoin mining on the Columbia River

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4464574
AutoresNick Lally (0000-0001-7254-3168, University of Kentucky), Kelly Kay (0000-0003-1824-2617, University of California, Los Angeles), Jim Thatcher (University of Washington Tacoma, autor correspondente)
Ano2022
Volume5
Fascículo1
Páginas18-38
Data de publicação2022-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEnvironment and Planning E Nature and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2514-8486 • E-ISSN: 2514-8494
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2514848619867608
OpenAlexW2968000606
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas45
Referências citadas42

Over the past three years, the dams of Chelan County, Washington, its watershed and fish, the electrical grid and the laborers who maintain it, and cleared land with warehouses filled with computers, have all been enrolled as part of the decentralized digital infrastructure of Bitcoin. While popular accounts of the Bitcoin network correctly report the massive scale of energy it consumes and its potential environmental ramifications, in practice, the material geographies of Bitcoin are highly uneven and intertwined with specific infrastructural, ecological, and economic systems. In this article, we examine Bitcoin's impacts on Chelan County, untangling the processes that occur as the distributed, digital infrastructure consumes the very real material resources of one place to produce digital goods used in another. In so doing, we examine not only the material costs of networks like Bitcoin, but also their historical ties to older processes of accumulation

Business · Clearance · Hydropower · Political science · Politics · Watershed · Blockchain Technology Applications and Security · Computer Science · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Ecology