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Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

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Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#131

Post by nannal »

Jonnax wrote: 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?

A transaction takes ~10 minutes, to ensure that the block which the transaction is included in isn't orphaned some services institute a 6 block waiting period to ensure the transaction is stable. Should the block be orphaned, the transaction will re-enter the mempool on all hosts who'd confirmed the block and should be included in a subsequent block.

The transaction cost depends on the size of the transaction and the congestion in the mempool, the cost can be set by any sender depending on the urgency of the transaction.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#132

Post by cecja »

yrral wrote: post #83

This is a rehash of a previous post of mine regarding electricity consumption: Back in the days where all our electricity came from fossil fuels, I completely agree that marginal electricity usage was bad for the environment. However I think that thought has persisted with us even though it is no longer true 100% of the time. With renewables sometimes the marginal cost of electricity to our environment is near 0 or e…

England lost 80% oft their forest to industrialization before fossil fuel came up.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#133

Post by doomroot »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #55

Bitcoin is Crypto 1.0. There are better ways to do this. But people remain infatuated with Bitcoin.

If something ever overtakes Bitcoin in the same way that Facebook overtook MySpace it’ll disprove the entire Bitcoin thesis. Currencies have to be stable. I expect a winner take all scenario here and Bitcoin to be that winner.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#136

Post by SigmundA »

xxs wrote: post #52
IgorPartola wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electricity is one of the most inefficient ways to heat a dwelling. I think natural gas is still considered to be several times more efficient but I haven’t looked at it in a few years. Of course if you are also getting benefits from the crypto you mined that will offset the cost.

>Electricity is one of the most inefficient ways to heat a dwelling. This is not true. Resistive heating is inefficient indeed but not all forms of conversion of electricity are inefficient. Geothermal pumps are very efficient for instance and use electricity only, they can be assisted directly by solar (PV) too.

Bitcoin mining is resistive heating using semiconductors as the heating element.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#137

Post by maclured »

sheeshkebab wrote: post #97
mettamage wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO it isn't. However, I do see a huge for sending large transactions. In that sense, I don't find it too crazy that Tesla is accepting Bitcoin, because buying a Tesla is a large transaction. IMO a niche use though.

I think accepting Bitcoin as payment was tried before - it never worked since people buying it are either not selling (and using to store cash that keeps on growing), or buying it for speculative purposes via secondary instruments (gbtc, ethe). Not really sure what’s point is for Tesla but my guess its speculative for them, with an attempt to get some additional value on cash they are starting to swim in now...

> Not really sure what’s point is for Tesla

Speculation and free marketing I expect

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#139

Post by auggierose »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #33
Jonnax wrote: 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".

But it doesn't have any value. Except that some people think it has. In times of truly global trouble, nobody will accept bitcoins as payment for bread.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#140

Post by chrisco255 »

epalm wrote: post #107

Forgive my ignorance but aren't there a finite number of bitcoins? A casual search says the world has mined 18.5 million out of a total of 21 million, after which, doesn't the mining process stop, along with the current environmental impact?

Bitcoin has a halving mechanism, every 4 years the rate of new BTC mined drops by half, so that BTC will take over a century to actually reach 21 million (2140).
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