"if Bitcoin drops below $1,000, mining now becomes unprofitable, rendering a very large part of the entire Bitcoin mining infrastructure instantly obsolete."
If this were true, the entire shale patch would be obsolete and nonexistent, which is manifestly false. A bitcoin price drop below $1000 would mean one of two things:
- The cost to produce drops below the commodity price.
- The commodity is no longer mined.
Neither would be an immediate outcome, as the author suggests. Most likely scenario would be a shakedown of the miners, where only the most efficient would survive, as suggested by Stan.
if the commodity is no longer mined then the inferstructure and technology defeloped to mine it is obsilite
Understood. However, my point is the dropping of price below cost of mining would have to sustain indefinitely for the network to become obsolete.