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Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

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Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#11

Post by pfisch »

Why would this cause the bubble to burst? Btc doesn't require the difficulty to be this high to function.

"The fact is, it's not really used much in the legal economy now. Yes, one rich person sells it to another, but that's not a final use. And without that it really doesn't have a long-term future."

Sentences like this make me think the author is clueless. That could be said of any neutral storage of value, like gold.

Btc is super convenient compared to gold, and transacting with it can't be easily shut down by anyone. Seems like that is all btc needs to be. It could be more maybe, but that is hardly a requirement for it to be successful.

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#12

Post by analog31 »

juanbyrge wrote: post #7

It is quite pathetic that a purported 'future of payments' is so inefficient in so many ways. This is why I will never participate in systems like bitcoin that consume hundreds of TwH (and growing) each year.

In my view, "law of unintended consequences" looms large here. On the other hand, "proof of work" reminds me that the equivalence of heat and work was proven more than 150 years ago by Joule.

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#13

Post by throwawayQuwcy »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #5

Bitcoin needs to get mapped across 1:1 to something that doesn't require vast number crunching energy use, and the old blockchain abandoned

It's already happening! There's approx 150,000 BTC locked in the Ethereum network as ERC20 tokens like WBTC and RENBTC

https://wbtc.network/dashboard/order-book

Ethereum is moving to proof of stake shortly. I imagine a lot more BTC will transfer over to take advantage of this & other benefits like defi interest

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#14

Post by wtf_is_up »

juanbyrge wrote: post #7

It is quite pathetic that a purported 'future of payments' is so inefficient in so many ways. This is why I will never participate in systems like bitcoin that consume hundreds of TwH (and growing) each year.

I don't think btc has been purported the future of payments for years, since things like ETH, ADA, ALGO have been proven better for that. BTC is considered 'digital gold', as in an alternative asset class that millenials and zoomers have adopted in lieu of gold. And now it has become mainstream for fund managers with large AUM to hold some without being laughed out of wall street.

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#15

Post by capableweb »

What about if the supposed "bubble" lasts until it's unfeasible to continue mining on the same speed as now? Eventually, bitcoin will have been mined, and then there is no need for as much mining, depending on transaction fees only. By then the energy use is massively lowered as well.

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#16

Post by eloff »

juanbyrge wrote: post #7

It is quite pathetic that a purported 'future of payments' is so inefficient in so many ways. This is why I will never participate in systems like bitcoin that consume hundreds of TwH (and growing) each year.

Its not a payment system (unless the transaction is sufficiently large).

It's more like digital gold. But gold has a track record of holding value over millennia. Bitcoin is only a decade old. Will it hold up over time? Nobody actually knows.

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#17

Post by [deleted] »

capableweb wrote: post #15

What about if the supposed "bubble" lasts until it's unfeasible to continue mining on the same speed as now? Eventually, bitcoin will have been mined, and then there is no need for as much mining, depending on transaction fees only. By then the energy use is massively lowered as well.

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#20

Post by agravier »

eloff wrote: post #16
juanbyrge wrote: post #7

It is quite pathetic that a purported 'future of payments' is so inefficient in so many ways. This is why I will never participate in systems like bitcoin that consume hundreds of TwH (and growing) each year.

Its not a payment system (unless the transaction is sufficiently large). It's more like digital gold. But gold has a track record of holding value over millennia. Bitcoin is only a decade old. Will it hold up over time? Nobody actually knows.

> Its not a payment system (unless the transaction is sufficiently large). > It's more like digital gold.

As explained by the famous paper: "Bitcoin: Definitely Not A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System"

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