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Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

cbeci.org

31–40 of 1001 posts

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#31
post #20
post #4

Perhaps not all of it is entirely "wasted" though. I've largely been able to avoid heating this winter as a result of crypto mining. A computer pumping ~300W into the air 24/7 is remarkably effective for a small apartment

With a heat pump you'd get about 3x the heat for the same amount of power

But a heat pump gives you about 0x the amount of bitcoin.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#32
post #5

And as Bitcoins get more scarce and get adopted by more and more banks and companies as reserves, the value of mining rewards is only going to continue rising, until Bitcoin will consume more electricity than the rest of the world combined. (Around the time it is worth $1.2 Million a coin.) Change my mind. Bitcoin rewards miners in Bitcoin, which is the ultimate deflationary “store of value”, and has the world mindsh…

Combined world governments going after miners is the best thing could happen to Bitcoin. Difficulty would drop allowing people to mine from general purpose computers again, which is a huge incentive. Then things will scale up again.

The toothpaste is out of the tube. Nothing can be done.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#33
post #23

From what I understand bitcoin currently has a $20+ transaction fee with a transaction time takes 60 minutes+ With these issues in addition to the high power consumption, how will Bitcoin become a usable currency?

It won't and even BTC enthusiasts have given up on that. They narrative is now that BTC is a "store of value".

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#34
post #20
post #4

Perhaps not all of it is entirely "wasted" though. I've largely been able to avoid heating this winter as a result of crypto mining. A computer pumping ~300W into the air 24/7 is remarkably effective for a small apartment

With a heat pump you'd get about 3x the heat for the same amount of power

But will that heat pump mine bitcoins for me?

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#35

Genuine question: how much does this matter if much of it is renewables and cheap hydro? I feel like the negative externalities of using a lot of electricity are very very tied to where that electricity came from

Even if all of Bitcoin uses renewables, that's demand for renewable energy that drives prices up, which will lead other energy consumers to either pay more or pick less expensive non-renewable energy sources instead.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#36
post #7

Question that came to mind after reading the headline: could this become a future reason for governments to criminalise the trading / use of Bitcoin because of negative environmental effects? On the surface it seems the value of Bitcoin is directly tied to its energy consumption and thus environmental harm. I get that Bitcoin itself is decentralised and cannot be banned outright. But could it be neutered in such a wa…

After all the Bitcoin is mined, it will be the greenest crypto currency, yes?. What if we just accelerated the mining, or made them all available at once. Problem solved? Truth be told, I really don't know what I'm talking about. It just sounded good in my head.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#37
post #23

From what I understand bitcoin currently has a $20+ transaction fee with a transaction time takes 60 minutes+ With these issues in addition to the high power consumption, how will Bitcoin become a usable currency?

> how will Bitcoin become a usable currency

It won't, it's just a speculative asset.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#38

Genuine question: how much does this matter if much of it is renewables and cheap hydro? I feel like the negative externalities of using a lot of electricity are very very tied to where that electricity came from

Is there reason to believe even a majority comes from renewable sources? And then, how much of that clean energy could be powering other things which are instead using fossil fuels?

At least in Europe, the lowest prices (even negative sometimes) for electricity are when renewable energies are producing a lot (e.g. when there's a storm in the north sea). If bitcoin mines are plugged on the real time market of electricity they would have an incentive to turn on when there's a lot of renewable energy produced. Assuming mines optimize their mining schedules on that, there's a scenario in which it could even help soak up the low prices and push investments into renewables.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#39
post #5

And as Bitcoins get more scarce and get adopted by more and more banks and companies as reserves, the value of mining rewards is only going to continue rising, until Bitcoin will consume more electricity than the rest of the world combined. (Around the time it is worth $1.2 Million a coin.) Change my mind. Bitcoin rewards miners in Bitcoin, which is the ultimate deflationary “store of value”, and has the world mindsh…

> Change my mind.

Well, personally, I'm still convinced Bitcoin is going to crash at some point. It doesn't work well as an actual currency because transfer times/fees are too high.

I don't know if that will happen in one year or 20 years though.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#40
I'm tired of this BS about Bitcoin and pollution. So tired that yesterday I wrote this [0]. Of course you might be in complete disagreement with me, but please read it and let me know what you think. Be kind. I am trying to have a good conversation about it, not to impose my view.

[0]: https://simon.medium.com/bitcoin-and-pollution-the-definitiv...

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