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Buying a Tesla car in Bitcoins cancels 4 times the CO2 savings for its lifetime

franck-leroy.medium.com

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Re: Buying a Tesla car in Bitcoins cancels 4 times the CO2 savings for its lifetime

#21

Post by mensetmanusman »

Are there any good papers on the BTC network robustness in the event of war.

It is well known that major military powers have the ability to cut essentially every ocean-floor optical fiber bundle handling the backbone of the internet at a moment’s notice.

If this happens, how would the bitcoin network respond without active connections to other mining nodes?

E.g. would the Chinese miners automatically (algorithmically) decide that they are the only existing miners, and so on and so forth?

Would an act like this essentially fork bitcoin into country segments because each communicating sub-group would think they have the ground truth until the global internet is physically reconnected?

Would love to see a simulation of this.

Re: Buying a Tesla car in Bitcoins cancels 4 times the CO2 savings for its lifetime

#22

Post by lukev »

hggh wrote: post #4

And what about the CO2 impact of using traditional banking (air conditioning, heating, commuting...)

Is there any evidence that Bitcoin is actually displacing traditional banking?

Using BTC for your savings or checking account would be an absolutely terrible idea given its volatility. No rational person would ditch traditional banking in favor of Bitcoin.

So really, this is just whataboutism to deflect from the fact that, environmentally speaking, Bitcoin is one of the worst inventions of the century.

Re: Buying a Tesla car in Bitcoins cancels 4 times the CO2 savings for its lifetime

#23

Post by lbrindze »

lxgr wrote: post #18
flyingfences wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin mining operations are generally located where electricity is cheapest. Electricity is cheapest where there is a surplus of hydro power (or other power with very low marginal cost). Where there is a surplus, use of that surplus does not drive other customers to other power sources.

By that logic, Bitcoin disincentivizes any investment in better grids and more efficient energy storage. Also, any such mining rig could have reasonably been a data center or scientific supercomputer instead.

I think your second point here often gets missed/understated. That energy and those computers could have been helping forecast severe weather events or working to fold proteins or any other number of useful tasks that don't involve tracking a ledger of other people's wealth.

Re: Buying a Tesla car in Bitcoins cancels 4 times the CO2 savings for its lifetime

#27

Post by nooneiswatching »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #21

Are there any good papers on the BTC network robustness in the event of war. It is well known that major military powers have the ability to cut essentially every ocean-floor optical fiber bundle handling the backbone of the internet at a moment’s notice. If this happens, how would the bitcoin network respond without active connections to other mining nodes? E.g. would the Chinese miners automatically (algorithmicall…

Very interesting thought. I believe that chains would initially split, effectively being forks of each other. However, the consensus algorithm of Bitcoin dictates that the chain with the most work is the valid one, meaning that in the event of a "reconnection", one of the chains would be abandoned (and everyone would agree which one to keep, namely the one with the most work).

In the case of a total disconnect between countries, there is no other way than splitting the network. If partial connectivity exists (using satellites for example), transactions could still be broadcasted from one country to another. However, the same coins could be double-spent in your own isolated network as well... until a reorg happens upon reconnect.

Re: Buying a Tesla car in Bitcoins cancels 4 times the CO2 savings for its lifetime

#28

Post by high_priest »

lukev wrote: post #22
hggh wrote: post #4

And what about the CO2 impact of using traditional banking (air conditioning, heating, commuting...)

Is there any evidence that Bitcoin is actually displacing traditional banking? Using BTC for your savings or checking account would be an absolutely terrible idea given its volatility. No rational person would ditch traditional banking in favor of Bitcoin. So really, this is just whataboutism to deflect from the fact that, environmentally speaking, Bitcoin is one of the worst inventions of the century.

The "Volatility" is purely temporary because of the market still being built. Eventually, the limited supply will make the currency super-stable and make calculations of actual worth of something super-easy. https://youtube.com/shorts/5jsY7YSJBs4

Re: Buying a Tesla car in Bitcoins cancels 4 times the CO2 savings for its lifetime

#29

Post by Tepix »

We need a significant worldwide CO2 emissions tax to get rid of the POW coins and replace them with something vastly more efficient.

Bitcoin is unable to evolve due to lack of consensus. The only constant is change. If bitcoin is unable to change it will die.

Re: Buying a Tesla car in Bitcoins cancels 4 times the CO2 savings for its lifetime

#30

Post by SahAssar »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #21

Are there any good papers on the BTC network robustness in the event of war. It is well known that major military powers have the ability to cut essentially every ocean-floor optical fiber bundle handling the backbone of the internet at a moment’s notice. If this happens, how would the bitcoin network respond without active connections to other mining nodes? E.g. would the Chinese miners automatically (algorithmicall…

I'm guessing that when they all reconnect again the longest chain would win and basically all the other forks would roll back, so essentially only the transactions of the continent with the most hash power would stay.

IIRC bitcoin does not have any conflict resolution besides "most work wins".

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