The whataboutism from cryptocurrency proponents every time the power use of mining is brought up is astonishing.
Every $1 of BTC value responsible for $0.49 in health and climate damages in US
61–70 of 436 posts
Re: Every $1 of BTC value responsible for $0.49 in health and climate damages in US
#62Why are there so many articles attacking crypto across the web as of late?
Re: Every $1 of BTC value responsible for $0.49 in health and climate damages in US
#63If Bitcoin is here to stay, would increasing the dollar value of Bitcoin improve this ratio / metric implying society is better off?
The difficulty is that the increasing dollar value of Bitcoin incentivises more mining activity (even though no additional coins will be produced as a result), so energy use is almost directly correlated with the price, at least in the medium term.
Fortunately as the block mining reward continues to be halved approximately every four years, the incentive to mine will decrease as well (though not quite as much, because miners also receive transaction fees).
Re: Every $1 of BTC value responsible for $0.49 in health and climate damages in US
#64This is about the furthest thing from “science”. Just sensationalist propaganda. It’s so far from being even remotely plausible. Maybe 1 BTC is responsible for $0.49 of “damage” if you could ever actually quantify it. Most of this electricity comes from the cheapest source of power, which is hydro.
> Most of this electricity comes from the cheapest source of power, which is hydro. This has become almost a religious belief amongst cryptocurrency acolytes, but it's simply not true. -- Edit: please see my comment¹ and piplikoc's comment² below for more detail on this. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26342411 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26342366
If you're going to question the validity of an assertion please provide more than just a counterassertion.
Re: Every $1 of BTC value responsible for $0.49 in health and climate damages in US
#65Doesn’t this speak mostly to the US not cleaning up their grid? Obviously the huge amount of wasted energy going into Bitcoin is insane, but it wouldn’t cause health issues if it was all nuclear, wind, solar, etc.
The US is actually a tiny portion of the hash rate in the BTC network. China makes up 70%+ of the hash rate of the network and they use a lot of coal power, ~62% of their power generation is handled by coal power.
Basically no where is to the point we can just add power draws and say they have no health impact. Energy being fungible until an grid is to the point of having excess renewable power during the day and miners being spun up and down to absorb that excess any mining will have health impacts. I think the spin up and down is important too because it means over night miners aren't causing excess capacity to be built for storage.
Re: Every $1 of BTC value responsible for $0.49 in health and climate damages in US
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Energy is not an infinite resource. The energy used to mine bitcoin could have been used for something else instead.
Ugh this is such a tired argument. Energy used to watch TV could be used for something else instead. What is this mystical “something else” which couldn’t be powered because Bitcoin was using up all the electricity, and what good fortune would it have brought us?
If you are arguing that bitcoin is using a significant amount of overflow hydro power, I'd like to check your sources.
Re: Every $1 of BTC value responsible for $0.49 in health and climate damages in US
#67The rise of Bitcoin is a reflection of low trust in the existing currencies. Low trust leads to inefficiency.
Cryptobots really believe this? Even as a European citizen, I have faith that the US Dollar will stay the US dollar, and keep value. The Euro will keep being the Euro. Hell, even the Yuan will stay the Yuan.
Just accept that you're willing to shit on the planet to make a few bucks, it's fine.
Re: Every $1 of BTC value responsible for $0.49 in health and climate damages in US
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Most of this electricity comes from the cheapest source of power, which is hydro. This has become almost a religious belief amongst cryptocurrency acolytes, but it's simply not true. -- Edit: please see my comment¹ and piplikoc's comment² below for more detail on this. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26342411 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26342366
If you're going to question the validity of an assertion please provide more than just a counterassertion.
You could say that to GP who just dismissed a published study without actually taking on any of the claims made therein.
Re: Every $1 of BTC value responsible for $0.49 in health and climate damages in US
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you were sitting on billions and wanted to accelerate climate change then investing in BTC is probably the most inefficient way to do that. I doubt that idea ever even crossed his mind. It’s just about the profit.
Is this bait? Of course it's just about profit... the point is that he should be aware of its environmental impact and the hypocrisy of his investment therein.
That may be your point, but it was not GP's point.
Re: Every $1 of BTC value responsible for $0.49 in health and climate damages in US
#70We have been interested in miners or mining farms which are fully powered by renewable energy. Canada and Sichuan is taking the lead and they have a lot of hydro power.
If you know any miners/mining farms powered by renewable energy sources, please send me a line to eren@countingcarbons.co
thank you.