last month in northern new york, plattsburg became the first us town to ban bitcoin mining.ddites, it isn't because we're afraid of crypto currency, it is because we recognise we have a fixed resource. plattsburg has provided unusually discounted electricity — about a fifth of the price of other american towns — and that's thanks to a fixed allocation of power from the niagara hydro power plant. but the surge in usage from mines has meant prices skyrocketing, hiking up bills for residents. so the local government has imposed an 18—month moratorium, preventing new commercial crypto mines from setting up shop. we were finding that the bitcoin and cryptocurrency users were coming and demanding so much of our power that it was forcing us to have to buy very expensive power and it had a really detrimental effect on our ratepayers. they used such an immense amount of power — one operator alone uses 10% of the entire quota. mayor read expects other new york towns to follow suit. but crypto mining isn't always just the selfish pursuit of wealth, as marc cieslak has been finding out.