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Swedish government agencies say energy-intensive crypto mining should be banned

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Re: Swedish government agencies say energy-intensive crypto mining should be banned

#81

Post by isodev »

VMG wrote: post #27
jakozaur wrote: post #9

Proof of work for mining should pay hefty carbon tax. Various other industry already pay that tax, why not mining crypto? Crypto fans make various claims, so lets check that. E.g. Any new etherum block carbon footprint would be verified through oracle and smart contracts. Based on that it will be subject to tax that will go to carbon-capture companies. With that incentive, crypto could innovate to better methods and…

This is nonsensical. If you want to tax carbon, tax it regardless what it is used for. What you are describing penalizes somebody who uses clean energy for mining and ignores somebody who uses coal power for running his bot farm.

I think it makes sense and aligns with the article's point. Unless we are at a point where clean energy is ubiquitous (there is no other kind), using power for mining or other power intensive processes which do not help us achieve our climate goals should be off-limits.

Re: Swedish government agencies say energy-intensive crypto mining should be banned

#82

Post by forgotmyoldname »

vadfa wrote: post #29
seu wrote: post #3

"If we were to allow extensive mining of crypto-assets in Sweden, there is a risk that the renewable energy available to us will be insufficient to cover the required climate transition that we need to make. This energy is urgently required for the development of fossil-free steel, large-scale battery manufacturing and the electrification of our transport sector. Based on estimates from Cambridge University, it is cu…

Nuclear is clean and sustainable and can allow people to mine bitcoin and even heat their homes, which seems to be a problem currently in some regions of Europe.

I’m fine with nuclear, but producing excess nuclear waste simply to produce random bits to do absolutely nothing isn’t something I’d support.

Re: Swedish government agencies say energy-intensive crypto mining should be banned

#83

Post by guerrilla »

FDSGSG wrote: post #55
guerrilla wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment on hydro isn't relevant since hydro output hasn't actually changed[1], meanwhile wind production has overall replaced nuclear. Total production has increased slightly while total domestic consumption has decreased slightly. So basically it comes down to increased exports and variability of wind. 1. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/El...

Why is it not relevant if growth of hydropower output has ceased? That seems like a perfectly relevant thing to point out.

Nothing has changed about the actual output of hydro power since the 80s. It wasn't growing to begin with, so it's definitely not a cause of very recent price increases.

Re: Swedish government agencies say energy-intensive crypto mining should be banned

#84

Post by swman »

seu wrote: post #3

"If we were to allow extensive mining of crypto-assets in Sweden, there is a risk that the renewable energy available to us will be insufficient to cover the required climate transition that we need to make. This energy is urgently required for the development of fossil-free steel, large-scale battery manufacturing and the electrification of our transport sector. Based on estimates from Cambridge University, it is cu…

Honestly do we really need cryptocurrency? I don’t want my transactions public. I like exchanging cash for weed (legal in California) and nobody needs to know regardless. I also don’t understand what’s wrong with USD. I grew up in a third world country so maybe it could help people there but in USA? I’m happy with the dollar fluctuations vs four digit fluctuations daily.

Can someone give me a good explain?

Re: Swedish government agencies say energy-intensive crypto mining should be banned

#85

Post by Jensson »

DeusExMachina wrote: post #73
devoutsalsa wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then let’s ban this waste of electricity everywhere. I’m all for the idea of crypto currency, but I’m not in support or baking the planet just so a few people can get some virtual goods.

How you define waste of electricity? You writing that comment might as well be declared a waste and prohibited.

People decide that democratically. This is just like how California bans all showerheads that gives you more than a trickle of water, since they see good showers as a waste of water (All of USA has a similar ban but less restrictive). Just that in Sweden they ban wasteful businesses rather than "wasteful" quality of life improvements.

Re: Swedish government agencies say energy-intensive crypto mining should be banned

#86

Post by ur-whale »

Energy consumption is not an environmental problem (whatever you use said energy for, be it Bitcoin mining, heating your home or powering your massage chair), and all policies that try to limit energy consumption are basically building on quicksand and doomed to fail: the world has and will continue to consume increasing amounts of energy by capita.

And anyone who's being an activist towards reducing energy consumption is completely deluded: energy consumption is strongly correlated with technical progress and civilization progress. Good luck putting an end to that short of reverting to the stone age.

Energy production is what needs to be fixed, specifically energy production that results in environmental damage, e.g.fossil fuel.

For reference, this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OpM_zKGE4o claims that a million square km of the Sahara desert receives enough energy from the sun to power the entire human civilization needs in 2020. Solve the technical problems associated with solar energy production and you'll solve global warming.

Infinite clean solar energy lets you filter CO2 out of the atmosphere back into carbon using technology, something plants have been doing to aeons.

Re: Swedish government agencies say energy-intensive crypto mining should be banned

#87

Post by labster »

DeusExMachina wrote: post #73
devoutsalsa wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then let’s ban this waste of electricity everywhere. I’m all for the idea of crypto currency, but I’m not in support or baking the planet just so a few people can get some virtual goods.

How you define waste of electricity? You writing that comment might as well be declared a waste and prohibited.

This shitty comment uses a kilojoule max. A single BTC transaction uses 1880 kWh.

https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption

Re: Swedish government agencies say energy-intensive crypto mining should be banned

#88

Post by wruza »

DeusExMachina wrote: post #73
devoutsalsa wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then let’s ban this waste of electricity everywhere. I’m all for the idea of crypto currency, but I’m not in support or baking the planet just so a few people can get some virtual goods.

How you define waste of electricity? You writing that comment might as well be declared a waste and prohibited.

Like any other waste, when it does more bad than good.

Re: Swedish government agencies say energy-intensive crypto mining should be banned

#89

Post by riffraff »

swman wrote: post #84
seu wrote: post #3

"If we were to allow extensive mining of crypto-assets in Sweden, there is a risk that the renewable energy available to us will be insufficient to cover the required climate transition that we need to make. This energy is urgently required for the development of fossil-free steel, large-scale battery manufacturing and the electrification of our transport sector. Based on estimates from Cambridge University, it is cu…

Honestly do we really need cryptocurrency? I don’t want my transactions public. I like exchanging cash for weed (legal in California) and nobody needs to know regardless. I also don’t understand what’s wrong with USD. I grew up in a third world country so maybe it could help people there but in USA? I’m happy with the dollar fluctuations vs four digit fluctuations daily. Can someone give me a good explain?

I'm not fond of cryptocurrency, but there are both traceable and untraceable ones. You could buy weed with untraceable crypto.
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