<story><title>Venezuela arrests 4 bitcoin miners as trading highs continue</title><url>http://bitcoinist.com/venezuela-arrests-bitcoin-miners/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>koolba</author><text>Of all the places to mine Bitcoin, why Venezuela? Is the electricity subsidized enough to justify all the other headaches associates with running an operation out of there?&lt;p&gt;With the instability of their currency I can understand why someone would want to use or buy bitcoin, but why mine there?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>climber_mac</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m from Venezuela, and happen to know a few people that are mining bitcoin down there. Electricity is incredibly cheap! You practically don&amp;#x27;t have to factor electricity costs in your operation. Yes, the grid is very unstable, but you can always by generators that run on gasoline (which is also incredibly cheap! a full tank of gas for your car will cost less than 0.1 USD.)&lt;p&gt;Now, this is obviously horrible for the environment. But what can you expect when your own currency is being rapidly destroyed by the power-hungry idiots that have taken hold of the country. Let&amp;#x27;s hope for a brighter future.</text></comment>
<story><title>Venezuela arrests 4 bitcoin miners as trading highs continue</title><url>http://bitcoinist.com/venezuela-arrests-bitcoin-miners/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>koolba</author><text>Of all the places to mine Bitcoin, why Venezuela? Is the electricity subsidized enough to justify all the other headaches associates with running an operation out of there?&lt;p&gt;With the instability of their currency I can understand why someone would want to use or buy bitcoin, but why mine there?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>csomar</author><text>I suspect electricity is pegged to the official rate. This makes it heavily subsidized even if it isn&amp;#x27;t. (The spread between the official and black market rate is huge)&lt;p&gt;So basically they are buying electricity at official rate and then selling the proceeds in the black market. Rinse and repeat. I suspect, also, their biggest challenge is to get the miners inside the country (since they are usually huge in size)</text></comment>