Bitcoin Miners Continue to Look for Cheaper Power

Bitcoin prices have started to stabilize and appear to be trying to form a bottom.  There is continued news about the difficulty in finding enough power to mine bitcoins, which has led miners to set up shop in many unusual areas to purchase cheap power.  Recently an Australian group IOT announced that they plan on building a blockchain mining operation at a decommissioned Australian coal-fired power station to deliver energy to other miners and blockchain companies.

The IOT group recently announced that they would be selling energy directly to blockchain companies that needed additional power. Hunter Energy has also announced that they want to start up the power station in the Q1 of 2019, re-igniting a coal powered station that has been dormant for 5-years.  This attempt is not news as miners have tried to set up shop in other dormant power stations including dams and co-generation plants. Hunter Energy and IOT group plan to work hand in hand to make this effort a success.

Why the Need for Cheap Power?

The issue for blockchain miners is that mining is difficult and requires huge amounts of energy to run the algorithms that generate the transactions for each bitcoin.  Each transaction that has taken place which makes up a bitcoin is available for anyone to see. What you cannot see from a bitcoin string is who owned the bitcoin at any point in time.  The issue for Australian bitcoin miners is that the cost of energy to produce a bitcoin is more expensive than the current selling price making mining a huge challenge. Cheaper power might incent emerging blockchain companies to set up shop in a Blockchain Application Center next to a power plant eager to sell energy at wholesale prices.

Demand

The demand for cryptocurrencies and specifically bitcoin is continuing to grow as many are looking for alternatives to government-issued currencies. The recently volatility in bitcoin trading has made it difficult for investors to focus on what is legitimate and what is scam bitcoin project. The blockchain technology that underlies cryptocurrencies, is a decentralized and encrypted way of recording transactions, synchronizing that activity and distributing the record of it across potentially thousands of computers. This means regulation can be difficult as there is no way to track the prior owners of any bitcoin.

Prices Volatility

Bitcoin prices have been volatile, soaring in December up to a high of 19,000 and then tumbling back to earth to settle near the 6,000 mark.  Support is seen near the 10-day moving average at 7,459 and then an upward sloping trend line near 6,000.  Prices have rebounded pushing the fast stochastic into overbought territory. The fast stochastic has recently generated a crossover sell signal which points to lower prices.  Momentum, as reflected by the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) index, is neutral as the MACD histogram is printing in the black with a declining trajectory which points to decelerating positive momentum and consolidation.