We have long explained how Riot’s “business model” — and Marathon’s as well — work an involuntary cost transfer, from the miners, to the retail consumers of Texas. This occurs, because Riot gets to upcharge during peak demand, or gets paid — to not turn on their miners, at the high-prices (gouging) rates, that all others must pay.
But in a “only in Texas” bit of insanity — the State (via ERCOT) transfers the high priced payments over to Riot — for shutting down. Over $72 million in the year 2023 alone.
That $72 million was given as corporate welfare to Riot, and even though it got the $72 million (from consumers’ pockets) it failed to make a business of mining (that is, it has STILL lost money — every year since becoming a miner — nearly eight long years now).
There is simply no doubt — no serious argument — that Riot and Marathon drive up the final price that retail (often limited means) consumers must pay (through the disconnected, privatized messed up Texas grid) for electricity, in hot mid-summer, AND in frigid snaps in January or February. Over 221 people (mostly low income seniors) died in early 2021 in their homes — due to the lack of affordable heat in Texas.
So Mr. Biden proposes that Riot and Marathon should pay a tax equal to 30% of the gross (pre-sell backs) price it is quoted, for electricity in Texas.
This is the same as charging heavy polluters (like uranium miners) the fair share of their remediation costs, under the EPA’s Super-Fund laws. Riot cannot continue to lose money and fund its losses from the pockets of unwilling / non-consenting local Texas families. [They didn’t get a vote, on whether to allow Riot to suck off their grid.]
So — here is the same release that came out in May of 2023, on the topic, from the White House (just down-dated to 2024):
…One new proposal in this year’s Budget, the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax, is an example of the President’s commitment to addressing both long-standing national challenges as well as emerging risks — in this case, the economic and environmental costs of current practices for mining crypto assets (cryptomining, for short). After a phase-in period, firms would face a tax equal to 30 percent of the cost of the electricity they use in cryptomining….
Cryptominers’ high energy consumption has negative spillovers on the environment, quality of life, and electricity grids where these firms locate across the country (OSTP 2022). Pollution from electricity generation falls disproportionately on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color (Thind et al. 2019). Cryptominers’ intensive and often volatile power consumption also can push up electricity prices for consumers and can increase risks for local electrical grids — straining equipment, causing service interruptions and safety hazards….
So buckle up kids, Riot may, by 2026, owe an additional $200 million in excise taxes, to be redistributed as aid to low income Texas families — from its hogging of electricity.
Now you know. Onward.
Today in the UK, the sitting trial level court has ruled that the evidence “overwhelmingly” establishes Mr. Wright is not Satoshi. The judge ruled orally from the bench today, as follows:
Scant surprise, there — just as he was an over $146 million loser in the Florida federal courts, and was widely suspected of having forged a so-called “Tulip Trust” document. So too, in this latest UK suit, his wildly inconsistent — in fact, contradictory — claims, within the space of three days on the stand, under cross-examination, about the provenance of certain documents apparently only he had access to… did him in.
RIOT Platforms (nee BlockChain) Reviewed -- For Sanity's Sake 