Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

This is a joke, right? You can’t convert Bitcoin back into energy no matter how you look at it.


You can. It's not even hard to work out: if we take "charging" to mean "buying energy for ₿", then "discharging" ought to mean "buying ₿ for energy".

If you think about it, both of those describe the same economic transaction — just from opposing vantage points (what is "charging" to one party in a transaction, is "discharging" to the other).

Relatedly, consider Switzerland's pumped hydro at Linthal. It'd be hard to dispute calling that plant a "battery" (works on gravity+water); but also consider the economic role it plays: it's an energy price arbitrage facility.

During the night, when grid prices get low, the plant "buys" the energy "for" water volume in the high lake. During the local day, the plant "sells" the water volume back, "for" literal electricity fed back into the grid at a higher price.

... Why have the water?


You can convert it to other forms of organized energy, like a Tesla.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: