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Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index

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Re: Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index

#21

Post by TekMol »

iaw wrote: post #14
TekMol wrote: post #4

The reward for mining a block will go down over time. In the end, all mining will be financed via the transaction fees. Then the market will figure out how much energy should be used per transaction.

Does that justify wasting enough electricity to power Dallas, Texas in the mean time?

Obviously it generates enough value for some people that they are willing to pay for it.

Watching television probably uses up even more energy. And I would argue it has a negative impact on life quality. But who am I to decide what people should value?

Re: Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index

#22

Post by pedrocr »

Spending 800M$ a year in electricity alone to run a digital currency is massive and at 8$ per transaction seems incredibly inneficient. The comparison to the VISA network is incredible. Independently of your opinion of the value of Bitcoin in the long term the current network is definitely not more useful to society than the VISA network.

Re: Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index

#23

Post by politician »

This is one of the reasons I prefer proof-of-stake schemes, despite the complexity, low power consensus is preferable given roughly equivalent tamper resistance. State collusion with mining pools is a credible threat to proof-of-work schemes.

Re: Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index

#24

Post by bengotow »

TekMol wrote: post #4

The reward for mining a block will go down over time. In the end, all mining will be financed via the transaction fees. Then the market will figure out how much energy should be used per transaction.

Yeah... doesn't seem promising to me. When transaction fees need to pay for mining / transaction validation, people will probably stop using Bitcoin for purchases they could make with other methods of payment.

Re: Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index

#26

Post by mark024 »

rainbowmverse wrote: post #20
mark024 wrote: post #15

demand & offer, if the energy were more expensive, fewer would mine and the difficulty would drop, I wish I could mine on my low powered laptop, but if you want to raise the pitch forks against bitcoin, on the same logic, we could stop playing computer games, watch movies/shows/tv etc, even using modern phones, the old nokias that lasted a week one one charge would do fine.

People have been raising the issue of our civilization's wastefulness for years. Where have you been?

Don't remember seeing any article about how many houses we could power by not playing computer games.

Re: Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index

#27

Post by hjnilsson »

givinguflac wrote: post #3

That is an absurd amount of energy. This really changes my opinion on this being a feasible currency.

1/1000th of global energy production. Or the output of one nuclear power plant, or the same as all energy lost to friction for every car in the world. That really puts it into perspective.

Re: Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index

#29

Post by jstanley »

iaw wrote: post #14
TekMol wrote: post #4

The reward for mining a block will go down over time. In the end, all mining will be financed via the transaction fees. Then the market will figure out how much energy should be used per transaction.

Does that justify wasting enough electricity to power Dallas, Texas in the mean time?

It's not "wasted". The miners wouldn't spend the energy if they weren't getting a good return on their investment.

Just because you don't like bitcoin doesn't make it a "waste" of energy, any more than mining gold is a "waste" of energy if you don't like gold.

Re: Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index

#30

Post by TekMol »

bengotow wrote: post #24
TekMol wrote: post #4

The reward for mining a block will go down over time. In the end, all mining will be financed via the transaction fees. Then the market will figure out how much energy should be used per transaction.

Yeah... doesn't seem promising to me. When transaction fees need to pay for mining / transaction validation, people will probably stop using Bitcoin for purchases they could make with other methods of payment.

It's the other way round. The energy consumption is defined by the fees people are willing to pay. Mining will always be profitable. No matter how low the fees are.
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