Quoted post unavailable.
Turns electricity into heat is more like it.
Destroy our planet for speculation(tm)
Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021
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Re: Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021
#22Gold mining consumes 240.61 TWh per year, which is comparable to the electrical energy consumed by a country like Australia. Source: https://globalenergyprize.org/en/2021/11/24/the-bitcoin-gold...
Gold as a material has many uses, not only to back currency. Comparison to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is not particularly useful.
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Re: Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021
#23Using EV savings as benchmark strikes me as rather hilarious. Like what does the author think those run on?
The comparison is the CO2 saved from transitioning from fossil fuel vehicles to EVs
Re: Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021
#24Quoted post unavailable.
I can explain my own downvote, if you like: the article is calling for reform of Bitcoing to make it more sustainable. You're pretending it's calling for bitcoin to be abolished - i.e a total strawman. You're also downplaying the enormity of the statement made by the post - including that Bitcoin has singlehandedly negated any climate gains we're making by electrifying cars. That's appalling, given the extremely low…
I didn't see an article. I saw a tweet with statistics. I had to look for the article, it's further down past a few hidden tweets. I appreciate your written explanation, I'm not a fan of the "downvote as disagreement" mechanism.
Re: Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021
#25The counter argument is that Bitcoin is a battery [1] so that if you live in a place like Iceland with plentiful energy, so much that even exporting it as aluminum leaves extra, then you can turn it into Bitcoin and export it that way.
But most Bitcoin mining is not that. I feel like Joni Mitchell in the Big Yellow Taxi: "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot" [2] Why are we allowing this to happen? (Well, at least outside China)
Re: Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021
#26Gold mining consumes 240.61 TWh per year, which is comparable to the electrical energy consumed by a country like Australia. Source: https://globalenergyprize.org/en/2021/11/24/the-bitcoin-gold...
Gold as a material has many uses, not only to back currency. Comparison to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is not particularly useful.
Over half of gold mined goes to investment purposes: https://www.statista.com/statistics/299609/gold-demand-by-in...
Re: Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gold as a material has many uses, not only to back currency. Comparison to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is not particularly useful.
Most of mined Gold is used as an investment vehicle or to make jewelry. Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/299609/gold-demand-by-in...
But that 46% used for “investment” can still be used for something tangible at a later date and so has something other than speculation setting it’s price.
Frankly I was pleasantly surprised it was only 46% used for investment.
Re: Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021
#28We are rapidly depleting our remaining carbon budget. Can a bitcoiner please explain to me why this is a necessary technological development right now?
Re: Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021
#29Gold mining consumes 240.61 TWh per year, which is comparable to the electrical energy consumed by a country like Australia. Source: https://globalenergyprize.org/en/2021/11/24/the-bitcoin-gold...
> DePaul University suggests that this number should be closer to 35 tons of CO2 for jewelry, which accounts for roughly 50% of global gold demand. It is assumed that refinement uses a similar amount of power to recycling; therefore, a total of 79.9 MWh is used for the mining and refinement of each gram of gold used in jewelry. Each kilogram of recycled gold produces 37 tons of CO2 and uses 31.3 MWh of energy. This brings the gold mining industry’s 2020 total to 265 TWh of energy used and 145 Mt of CO2 produced if we use the DePaul study’s numbers and account for 1750 tons of jewelry.
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/a-comparison-of-bitcoins-env...
That includes the cost of making jewelry. Also, transactions with gold basically 0 energy.
Re: Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total during 2021
#30Using EV savings as benchmark strikes me as rather hilarious. Like what does the author think those run on?
The comparison is the CO2 saved from transitioning from fossil fuel vehicles to EVs
The world's biggest EV market is China. 60% of their grid runs on coal.
It would be interesting if there's any climate savings from what they're doing with EV vs ICE given their infrastructure. I'm doubtful it's much if anything.