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Why do you believe that? The last couple of halvings appeared to have little effect on the global hashrate, and so had little effect on the energy consumption.

Why do you believe that? The last couple of halvings appeared to have little effect on the global hashrate, and so had little effect on the energy consumption. The vast majority of Bitcoin mining is done by professionals. I doubt many people buy thousands of dollars worth of hardware to mine simply for fun. Miners are looking to profit. People will mine the coin up until the point at which it becomes unprofitable. The cost of mining is more or less the cost of electricity (you can amortise the cost of the mining hardware over time). It makes sense to mine when the value of a coin is higher than the cost of the power used in mining it. Electricity cost is proportional to energy consumption. Hence, Bitcoin's energy consumption is proportional to its value.

hueving 10y ago
Well a halving halves as much value you get per kwh of energy spent if the hashrate stays the same. So it will eventually hit a point where a halving will make a lot of miners unprofitable and the overall hashrate will slow down until it reaches a balance again.
mynameislegion 10y ago
> Miners are looking to profit. This is true in a sense, but a majority of the mining is done by Chinese pools which do sell at a loss to the electricity costs even there. The losses are acceptable because it is used as a way to get currency out of the country.
- api 10y ago
  Chinese capital controls seem to be distorting all kinds of markets. Around here (SoCal) I've heard of Chinese "investors" buying houses at 5-10% over asking sight unseen and not caring about possible depreciation because it's a way to get money out of China. Losses as high as 25% are apparently acceptable to some people looking to get past capital controls.
- joosters 10y ago
  A majority, you say? Where's your evidence of this, or are you making stuff up? Bitcoin is certainly one way to get money out of China, but there has never been a shortage of ways to do that: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/files/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-03-at-13.54.37.png http://ftalphaville.ft.com/files/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03...
flashdance 10y ago
Bitcoins energy consumption is related to the USD value of bitcoins mined every day, not the value of each individual bitcoin. Consider the extreme case: Tomorrow, the block reward changes such that only one bitcoin is mined a day @ $600/coin. The hashrate would definitely drop in that case, even though the price stayed the same! > The last couple of halvings appeared to have little effect on the global hashrate, and so had little effect on the energy consumption. True, but the system was not at equilibrium--the cost to mine a bitcoin had not yet approached the value gained from selling one, so after the halving most miners were profitable, and the hashrate stayed the same.
- TheDong 10y ago
  Mining hashrate is related ot the value of bitcoin because mining is how you secure the existing bitcoins. The more valuable bitcoins are, the more incentive there is to secure the system such that they retain their value and security.

hueving 10y ago

Well a halving halves as much value you get per kwh of energy spent if the hashrate stays the same. So it will eventually hit a point where a halving will make a lot of miners unprofitable and the overall hashrate will slow down until it reaches a balance again.

mynameislegion 10y ago

> Miners are looking to profit. This is true in a sense, but a majority of the mining is done by Chinese pools which do sell at a loss to the electricity costs even there. The losses are acceptable because it is used as a way to get currency out of the country.

api 10y ago
Chinese capital controls seem to be distorting all kinds of markets. Around here (SoCal) I've heard of Chinese "investors" buying houses at 5-10% over asking sight unseen and not caring about possible depreciation because it's a way to get money out of China. Losses as high as 25% are apparently acceptable to some people looking to get past capital controls.
joosters 10y ago
A majority, you say? Where's your evidence of this, or are you making stuff up? Bitcoin is certainly one way to get money out of China, but there has never been a shortage of ways to do that: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/files/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-03-at-13.54.37.png http://ftalphaville.ft.com/files/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03...

flashdance 10y ago

Bitcoins energy consumption is related to the USD value of bitcoins mined every day, not the value of each individual bitcoin. Consider the extreme case: Tomorrow, the block reward changes such that only one bitcoin is mined a day @ $600/coin. The hashrate would definitely drop in that case, even though the price stayed the same! > The last couple of halvings appeared to have little effect on the global hashrate, and so had little effect on the energy consumption. True, but the system was not at equilibrium--the cost to mine a bitcoin had not yet approached the value gained from selling one, so after the halving most miners were profitable, and the hashrate stayed the same.

TheDong 10y ago
Mining hashrate is related ot the value of bitcoin because mining is how you secure the existing bitcoins. The more valuable bitcoins are, the more incentive there is to secure the system such that they retain their value and security.