Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Crypto Mining Consumes a Mind-Boggling 2% of U.S. Electricity

heatmap.news

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 37 posts

Re: Crypto Mining Consumes a Mind-Boggling 2% of U.S. Electricity

#11

Post by pyinstallwoes »

throwaway81523 wrote: post #5

I saw a theoretical calculation many years ago saying that bitcoin mining would eventually use 7% of the world's electricity. I laughed at it then, but take it more seriously now. Electricity in the US is expensive, so if it's using 2% here, it must be using more in some other parts of the world.

Taken to the extreme it is an accelerated track to causing a black hole given the incentives of the network and the requirement of computational space having a physical necessity to provide the substrate for it to continue.

Re: Crypto Mining Consumes a Mind-Boggling 2% of U.S. Electricity

#12

Post by maxbond »

samkon wrote: post #9
qwytw wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EVs actually provide real value, you know, like getting people from one place place to another etc. While this is completely useless. Stopping crypto mining is an extremely low hanging fruit if we we are serious at all about climate change (yes some people might claim that miners might be using renewable energy in many cases but it still could used for something actually useful instead..)

I’ve never understood the take that a crypto network “doesn’t provide value”. Keeping the network secure isn’t valuable? So whose paying for all the energy exactly? How long until they’re bled dry?

> Keeping the network secure isn’t valuable?

Keeping the network secure has the same value as you apply to the network. If you're a Bitcoin maximalist this is infinite. If you're absolutely opposed to it it's zero. For most people it's somewhere in between. We can't pressupose that the energy expenditure is valuable because it is functionally necessary to the network.

> So whose paying for all the energy exactly? How long until they’re bled dry?

This is sort of like saying, "if gambling isn't valuable, where is the money coming from?" It's an activity some people want to engage in, and in the interests of liberty and self determination they should be able to do so. But when it has negative externalities of a severity that can't be ignored, something has to give and it had to be curbed to the point we reach a tolerable balance.

To be frank, Bitcoin hasn't demonstrated that it has deeper value than being a speculative financial asset. We've got a lot of speculative financial assets, most of them don't cost 2% of our energy expenditure in environmental externality.

Re: Crypto Mining Consumes a Mind-Boggling 2% of U.S. Electricity

#14

Post by Skinetio »

waych wrote: post #7
grotorea wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you consider consumption of energy as a whole and not just electricity it would be quite different because EVs are replacing petroleum fuel cars. What type of energy consumption is cryptocurrency mining replacing?

If you consider the consumption of energy required to make an EV versus a die cast combustion engine, you'll see the energy consumption got front loaded.

This is only partially true.

1. the amount of renewable will increase which will mean that this will not count in 50 years while gas cars will still burn fuel.

2. the overall co2 production is relevant smaller with EVs. There is probably a high correliation to co2 vs. energy (otherwise it would be weird).

Re: Crypto Mining Consumes a Mind-Boggling 2% of U.S. Electricity

#15

Post by Skinetio »

samkon wrote: post #9
qwytw wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EVs actually provide real value, you know, like getting people from one place place to another etc. While this is completely useless. Stopping crypto mining is an extremely low hanging fruit if we we are serious at all about climate change (yes some people might claim that miners might be using renewable energy in many cases but it still could used for something actually useful instead..)

I’ve never understood the take that a crypto network “doesn’t provide value”. Keeping the network secure isn’t valuable? So whose paying for all the energy exactly? How long until they’re bled dry?

And thats not true.

The energie consumed only keeps stuff ON the chain secure but we do not just use the chain.

You do not just give someone else a bitcoin without anything in return. As soon as anything ofchain is part of the equation, its no longer working. NO power consumption makes sure that you get whatever you bought with your bitcoin.

Its a lie.

And pls don't mention smart contracts, they are as shitty as everything else. It doesn't make sense to block capital for exchange as it only shifts the problem.

Crypto did not solve the 'trust' issue.

Re: Crypto Mining Consumes a Mind-Boggling 2% of U.S. Electricity

#16

Post by ecf »

g42gregory wrote: post #13

Wow, it’s “mind-boggling” now. Interesting choice of words. I wonder who comes up with these points and what is the mechanism for distributing them to the news outlets worldwide?

Does it matter? Crypto, arguably useless to 99.9% of US citizens is ~~using~~ wasting 2% of all energy.

Re: Crypto Mining Consumes a Mind-Boggling 2% of U.S. Electricity

#17

Post by ecf »

Imetwill wrote: post #2

How is the mind-boggling... Are you forgetting the impact of EVs? EV demand is mind-boggling... Also, consider the shift in generation https://www.statista.com/statistics/189369/electricity-net-g... While it's disturbing its consumption, it's a misdirection to where the real impacts should be focused...

https://cleantechnica.com/2024/02/02/the-us-added-1-2-millio...

Adding EVs to the market seems to be a net negative for electricity use. Can you say the same for your imaginary coin machines?

Re: Crypto Mining Consumes a Mind-Boggling 2% of U.S. Electricity

#18

Post by g42gregory »

ecf wrote: post #16
g42gregory wrote: post #13

Wow, it’s “mind-boggling” now. Interesting choice of words. I wonder who comes up with these points and what is the mechanism for distributing them to the news outlets worldwide?

Does it matter? Crypto, arguably useless to 99.9% of US citizens is ~~using~~ wasting 2% of all energy.

I believe 25% of US households own crypto at this point [1]. It’s more widely adopted then you think. BlackRock CEO said it’s “bigger than any Government”. And he would know. :-)

[1] https://cointelegraph.com/news/grayscale-finds-that-over-25-...

Post reply on HN