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Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated

blog.dshr.org

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Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated

#31

Post by whoknowswhat11 »

cwkoss wrote: post #19

The idea of taxing cryptocurrencies specifically for carbon emissions is some mixture of naive, shallow and sour grapes. There are a lot of wasteful industries - crypto is a small slice of the overall pie and is arguably the most responsive to market forces. Make universally applied carbon taxes across all industries and let the market sort it out. I'm a crypto bull, and fully support greening our energy economy. Adv…

Already happening.

Crazy mandated ethanol blending.

Hydrogen "superhighways"

etc

Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated

#32

Post by piggybox »

seibelj wrote: post #22
endisneigh wrote: post #3

There's some good data here - that being said, even if the carbon footprint were literally zero, I couldn't personally support cryptocurrency. Fundamentally it's the antithesis to democracy. Say whatever you will about all forms of government, but ultimately no matter the form, there's some level of accountability. Some governments use elections to facilitate this, others use the threat of rulers being killed. One wa…

The Pandora Papers recently released had terabytes of data and 13 million documents of how the richest people and politicians on earth avoid taxes. Bitcoin was used exactly zero times.

By definition, bitcoin transactions are not traceable, right?

Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated

#33

Post by binarymax »

"they estimate 12.94GW or 0.45% of total global electricity consumption, with theoretical bounds of [4.65,31.17]GW"

Devastating.

Now imagine if we spent 0.45% more of global electricity on carbon capture (and growing) and how much better off our prospects would be.

Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated

#35

Post by MadSudaca »

endisneigh wrote: post #3

There's some good data here - that being said, even if the carbon footprint were literally zero, I couldn't personally support cryptocurrency. Fundamentally it's the antithesis to democracy. Say whatever you will about all forms of government, but ultimately no matter the form, there's some level of accountability. Some governments use elections to facilitate this, others use the threat of rulers being killed. One wa…

What about the benefit to the rest of society? Everyone else will, in theory, have some of the same powers that the oligarchs have.

Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated

#36

Post by pjc50 »

dqx wrote: post #12
endisneigh wrote: post #3

There's some good data here - that being said, even if the carbon footprint were literally zero, I couldn't personally support cryptocurrency. Fundamentally it's the antithesis to democracy. Say whatever you will about all forms of government, but ultimately no matter the form, there's some level of accountability. Some governments use elections to facilitate this, others use the threat of rulers being killed. One wa…

How effective were the traditional means of removing oligarchs? The US just elected a game show host president 4 years ago.

They managed to remove him democratically despite a rebel faction storming the capitol. Slightly less dramatic than Yeltsin on a tank, though.

Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated

#37

Post by bitxbitxbitcoin »

xrd wrote: post #2

I still think war and oil are dirtier and don't see a way to wean ourselves off that consumption and impact. I do see that cryptocurrencies are moving toward energy reduction through things like proof of stake and L2s. https://susanfsu.medium.com/think-btc-is-a-dirty-business-co...

Wars and oil are way dirtier, but most people aren’t cognizant that those things are pet and parcel to their preferred centralized currency.

Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated

#38

Post by astoor »

endisneigh wrote: post #3

There's some good data here - that being said, even if the carbon footprint were literally zero, I couldn't personally support cryptocurrency. Fundamentally it's the antithesis to democracy. Say whatever you will about all forms of government, but ultimately no matter the form, there's some level of accountability. Some governments use elections to facilitate this, others use the threat of rulers being killed. One wa…

> "now you've created some amorphous group of oligarchs whose power cannot be really removed by traditional means. It's just a regression."

"With the privatisation of money creation and the proliferation of decentralised currency fiefdoms, it was in many ways like a return to feudalism..."

Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated

#39

Post by seibelj »

piggybox wrote: post #32
seibelj wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Pandora Papers recently released had terabytes of data and 13 million documents of how the richest people and politicians on earth avoid taxes. Bitcoin was used exactly zero times.

By definition, bitcoin transactions are not traceable, right?

Bitcoin transactions are far more traceable and easy to scan than it is to track payments in the offshore world, which involves many jurisdictions, subpoenas, judges, delays, getting stonewalled, etc. Night and day difference in ability to track.

Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated

#40

Post by NoGravitas »

hparadiz wrote: post #17

The energy consumption used by asics per hash unit is NOT known as claimed in this link. The actual rate drops over time. The article makes so many assumptions that are basically estimates that even posting this on HN is sad.

Seethe.
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