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Section 5 says "thanks to the transaction rate increasing faster than the network's energy consumption". Is the transaction rate increasing? Two years ago peop

by rspeer 10y ago

Section 5 says "thanks to the transaction rate increasing faster than the network's energy consumption". Is the transaction rate increasing? Two years ago people said it was 7 transactions per second. Now it's 3 per second. It may be that people were making unchecked exaggerations two years ago. But this doesn't look like any sort of increase. If the transaction rate is "quadrupling every 2 years"... why didn't it quadruple over 2 years? An article entitled "Bitcoin Mining is Not Wasteful" on a Bitcoin blog kind of tells you what conclusion it's going to come to. For people who aren't personally invested in Bitcoin, of course Bitcoin mining is wasteful. It is literally made of wasted computation. The fact that it benefits an economy of Bitcoin speculators is of no interest.

mrb 10y ago
Yes the tx rate is increasing: https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?daysAverageString=7&timespan=all https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?daysAverageStr... It never was 7 tps. 7 is the theoretical maximum (assumes the tx had only 1 input.) In practice Bitcoin never achieves this because the average tx has multiple inputs. "...tells you what conclusion it's going to come to" You have to examine the presented facts, not the messenger. This blog is mine, and I think I present decent evidence that it's not wasteful. You have to look at the whole picture, ie. the Bitcoin economy lead to $1+ billion invested in 729+ companies, etc... Investing x megawatt in a system that produces investments and jobs is hardly a "waste".
- rspeer 10y ago
  > It never was 7 tps. 7 is the theoretical maximum Wow, you mean Bitcoin fans were prone to exaggeration and unrealistic claims two years ago? I wonder if they still are. Speaking of which, this graph you're showing me definitely has not quadrupled over the last two years. What went wrong? > Investing x megawatt in a system that produces investments and jobs is hardly a "waste". It is if the jobs never produce any actual value. Moving money around is not a good in itself. In fact a lot of Bitcoin companies have moved money in ways that are distinctly bad. Would you be celebrating MtGox as part of the Bitcoin economy if they still existed? Of course whoever is currently holding the money is happy with it. Doesn't mean it's not a waste. People have profited from waste for as long as civilization has existed. (edited out an ad hominem, sorry)
  - mrb 10y ago
    "Wow, you mean Bitcoin fans were prone to exaggeration and unrealistic claims two years ago?" No one ever claimed it actually processed 7 tps. "Speaking of which, this graph you're showing me definitely has not quadrupled over the last two years." It quadrupled from 65k in Oct 2014 to 260k today. It's 2 years 5 months. Close enough. "2 years" was an approximation (perhaps I should edit my post to make it clear). "It is if the jobs never produce any actual value" Well I think they provide value. But it would be tedious & complex to argue about this on HN by reviewing the list of employees at 729+ companies...

by rspeer 10y ago

mrb 10y ago

Yes the tx rate is increasing: https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?daysAverageString=7&timespan=all https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?daysAverageStr... It never was 7 tps. 7 is the theoretical maximum (assumes the tx had only 1 input.) In practice Bitcoin never achieves this because the average tx has multiple inputs. "...tells you what conclusion it's going to come to" You have to examine the presented facts, not the messenger. This blog is mine, and I think I present decent evidence that it's not wasteful. You have to look at the whole picture, ie. the Bitcoin economy lead to $1+ billion invested in 729+ companies, etc... Investing x megawatt in a system that produces investments and jobs is hardly a "waste".

rspeer 10y ago
> It never was 7 tps. 7 is the theoretical maximum Wow, you mean Bitcoin fans were prone to exaggeration and unrealistic claims two years ago? I wonder if they still are. Speaking of which, this graph you're showing me definitely has not quadrupled over the last two years. What went wrong? > Investing x megawatt in a system that produces investments and jobs is hardly a "waste". It is if the jobs never produce any actual value. Moving money around is not a good in itself. In fact a lot of Bitcoin companies have moved money in ways that are distinctly bad. Would you be celebrating MtGox as part of the Bitcoin economy if they still existed? Of course whoever is currently holding the money is happy with it. Doesn't mean it's not a waste. People have profited from waste for as long as civilization has existed. (edited out an ad hominem, sorry)
- mrb 10y ago
  "Wow, you mean Bitcoin fans were prone to exaggeration and unrealistic claims two years ago?" No one ever claimed it actually processed 7 tps. "Speaking of which, this graph you're showing me definitely has not quadrupled over the last two years." It quadrupled from 65k in Oct 2014 to 260k today. It's 2 years 5 months. Close enough. "2 years" was an approximation (perhaps I should edit my post to make it clear). "It is if the jobs never produce any actual value" Well I think they provide value. But it would be tedious & complex to argue about this on HN by reviewing the list of employees at 729+ companies...