(Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate • Hacker News Board

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#11

Post by Yawrehto » Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 2:10 PM UTC

streptomycin wrote: post #8

Proof of stake uses a lot less energy. And if you're worried about the energy usage of crypto, wait until you hear about this AI thing...

>And if you're worried about the energy usage of crypto, wait until you hear about this AI thing...

Both of them are stupid energy/water sucking machines. I'm kind of curious how much emissions would fall if we just outlawed crypto, AI, and private jets, because those seem like three large things that don't particularly matter to normal people.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#12

Post by kixxauth » Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 2:14 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #10

Is this still an issue? I thought crypto is pretty much dead now and the speculators have moved onto AI? Also, didn't the big coins (ethereum) move to proof of stake anyway?

It's no longer a boom (and yes, AI is probably far worse at this point)

And proof of stake consumes less energy, but still significant.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#13

Post by kixxauth » Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 2:16 PM UTC

Yawrehto wrote: post #11

streptomycin wrote: post #8

Proof of stake uses a lot less energy. And if you're worried about the energy usage of crypto, wait until you hear about this AI thing...

>And if you're worried about the energy usage of crypto, wait until you hear about this AI thing... Both of them are stupid energy/water sucking machines. I'm kind of curious how much emissions would fall if we just outlawed crypto, AI, and private jets, because those seem like three large things that don't particularly matter to normal people.

Yeah, it's appropriately ironic that these things were supposed to give power to the people (excluding the private jets), but power has become consolidated to those who have the means to consolidate it ... and the climate pays.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#14

Post by b20000 » Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 2:25 PM UTC

I disagree, I think crypto is extremely important, much more important than social media for example, which has been shown to be toxic and to destroy people's health, on top of also requiring a lot of data center resources and thus being bad for the climate.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#15

Post by ativzzz » Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 3:14 PM UTC

Yawrehto wrote: post #11

streptomycin wrote: post #8

Proof of stake uses a lot less energy. And if you're worried about the energy usage of crypto, wait until you hear about this AI thing...

>And if you're worried about the energy usage of crypto, wait until you hear about this AI thing... Both of them are stupid energy/water sucking machines. I'm kind of curious how much emissions would fall if we just outlawed crypto, AI, and private jets, because those seem like three large things that don't particularly matter to normal people.

> three large things that don't particularly matter to normal people.

According to google searches, chatGPT has something 100-200 million people using it monthly. IDK how accurate that is, but even if it's off by a magnitude, that is something that is clearly useful to normal people

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#16

Post by agumonkey » Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 3:24 PM UTC

There's a slight chance that the blockchain trend represents a global underlying open networked computation for the whole planet. Another point is that the greed seems to make people invest into energy research (unless it's rumors). Otherwise yeah it's an expensive casino.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#17

Post by fl0id » Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 3:24 PM UTC

kixxauth wrote: post #12

solardev wrote: post #10

Is this still an issue? I thought crypto is pretty much dead now and the speculators have moved onto AI? Also, didn't the big coins (ethereum) move to proof of stake anyway?

It's no longer a boom (and yes, AI is probably far worse at this point) And proof of stake consumes less energy, but still significant.

Things like bitcoin still exist, which still use PoW afaik

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#18

Post by kibwen » Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 3:28 PM UTC

kixxauth wrote: post #12

solardev wrote: post #10

Is this still an issue? I thought crypto is pretty much dead now and the speculators have moved onto AI? Also, didn't the big coins (ethereum) move to proof of stake anyway?

It's no longer a boom (and yes, AI is probably far worse at this point) And proof of stake consumes less energy, but still significant.

The energy consumption of proof of stake is inherently less of an issue because, unlike proof of work, it does not itself incentivize waste in an escalating vicious feedback loop. In other words, an industry where energy expenditure is an input is categorically different than an industry where energy expenditure is an output, which is the real existential crisis of proof of work.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#19

Post by zikduruqe » Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 3:28 PM UTC

streptomycin wrote: post #8

Proof of stake uses a lot less energy. And if you're worried about the energy usage of crypto, wait until you hear about this AI thing...

> wait until you hear about this AI thing

What about this AWS thing, Netflix thing, Google Datacenter thing, ... aren't all these things chewing up electrons also?

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#20

Post by codingdave » Wed, Jul 17, 2024, 3:39 PM UTC

zikduruqe wrote: post #19

streptomycin wrote: post #8

Proof of stake uses a lot less energy. And if you're worried about the energy usage of crypto, wait until you hear about this AI thing...

> wait until you hear about this AI thing What about this AWS thing, Netflix thing, Google Datacenter thing, ... aren't all these things chewing up electrons also?

Yes, we would have better energy management if people unplugged. Good suggestion. But even with that being true, AI is a whole new level of scaling up when it comes to burning energy to drive apps.