[deleted]
Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China
191–200 of 431 posts
Re: Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China
#192A good reminder that Bitcoin runs on cheap renewables is BS. See also miners buying gas power plants in New York.[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26828479
A good reminder that bitcoin is mined by 51% chinese miners and that it's not that decentralized, obviously.
A reminder that blockchain is public and 51% attacks would be visible.
Re: Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to the Twitter thread quoted by TFA, https://twitter.com/doveywan/status/1382912887535005701 , non-crypto data centers in the region are down as well, which really doesn’t support this reading between lines.
The Twitter thread you linked said exactly opposite thing. Take a look at this one: https://twitter.com/DoveyWan/status/1382955030995554304 The Chinese text in this screenshot basically says: "Some ISP datacenters were required to shut down and prepare for inspection. Others, because of the local government for 'reducing risk', they want to avoid the spotlight, so they shut down themselves. And then wait until inspec…
I can understand Chinese alright. The other screenshot of some "AICoin news" says "big data data centers" are almost all shut down for a week; are Bitcoin mining operations in any sense "big data"? Also, the quote you use simply isn't clear about whether the inspections are Bitcoin mining-related. It is also consistent with all data centers connected to the power grid in the affected counties being shut down, although of course there's the possibility that all data centers in the region are Bitcoin mining operations, so in that case it would be distinction without a difference.
Re: Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, and it’s vastly less than Bitcoin. Simply because it’s centralized, and a centralized system is always more efficient than a decentralized one. It’s a well known trade off. A better comparison would be gold versus Bitcoin, as they’re both similarly decentralized. Just comparing energy consumption between the two probably wouldn’t make sense, though, as gold mining e.g. ruins vast areas of land.
Care to share your sources? Naturally, a summation of the energy expenditure of all of the related components of the existing fiat system must be included, from the totality of all people operating the various functions that facilitate the existing fiat system; i.e. their commutes, aggregate expenditures due to needing to operate physical banks, power usage at these physical banks, etc. are all factored into this cal…
You make a good point wrt. physical cash (coins and bills) versus electronic currency. I think it's sensible to analyze the two separately.
Also, it's important to consider that commercial banks do much more than just keep track of "who owns how much USD". Banks are primarily middle men in the credit markets, and this is not related to establishing people's balance (which is all the Bitcoin network does). If Bitcoin persists then BTC credit markets will also develop, which would be very different from just keeping track of "who owns how much" (which is all the Bitcoin blockchain does).
Re: Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China
#195A good reminder that Bitcoin runs on cheap renewables is BS. See also miners buying gas power plants in New York.[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26828479
Hopefully, rest of our economy has rested on green power for last hundred of years. Oh wait...
Re: Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
... to appease Germany's environmentalists who saw shutting down working nuclear plants as a major win. (Yes, I know it's a different source of coal. But energy, in the age of oil tankers and thousand-mile pipelines, is fungible.)
No. Literally Germany's coal is specifically because its their own coal, a natural resource within their own borders they control. For national security, they maintain a coal capacity. Germany's coal burning is national security, nothing to do with environmentalists.
They literally break down cute little towns and pay them pennies to relocate to increase the coal mining holes. Germany really is somewhat strange in this
Re: Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has anyone tried to calculate the energy expenditure of the fiat currency system as a comparison, ideally per "unit worth" (whatever that might be) since fiat still vastly outcapitalises cryptocurrency?
I'm not sure. The trouble is you're comparing apples to oranges. On the one hand you have money which, while not essential for civilisation, is generally agreed to be a good thing. On the other you have this thing that absolutely is not money by any stretch. How do you possibly calculate how much value each of these adds to society?
I think that money is essential for civilization. I support what Jeremy Irons said Kevin Spacey in movie Margin Call: “Money is just a made up thing that helps we don’t kill each other for food.”
Re: Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn’t matter where it is used up, the point is that it is unnecessary work taking a huge amount of energy, that could be used for better things. Even using up purely renewable energy makes every other industry rely more on non-renewables, so it is a lose-lose either way.
Maybe with the simplistic perspective that Bitcoin has a value that you can calculate. Energy usecases are worth what energy they use. Energy exists in a mostly free market and that's the best way to determine value. Everything else is conjecture.
I sure hope the free energy market doesn’t respond to Bitcoin mining like the free graphics card market does. Thankfully, the energy market is heavily regulated in many parts of the world, so something can be done.
Re: Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China
#199According to the article the majority of hashing power is situated in China, so China does control Bitcoin after all. So people are gambling their life savings on a coin controlled by the CCP.
Kinda far stretched for a decentralized curreny to call it controlled by someone. Everbody of us can see themselfs that there hasnt been a 51% attack next to many reasons why we likely wont see one with BTC
Re: Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in China
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
So point them out, please. One that is efficient on all levels.
XRP and Stellar were the pioneers in this regard. Since about 2013 and 2014 respectively (or thereabouts). Such systems have negligible energy usage. In general, anything using some flavour of Byzantine Fault Tolerance - of which there are a few - as a method of consensus, consumes very little energy for the payback. If appropriately deployed (similar issue to PoW, decentralisation needs to be maintained) BFT-type co…
XRP is not an alternative to Bitcoin; it's a proposed alternative to SWIFT.