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Why don't we compare Bitcoin's energy footprint with that of all the banks, remittance shops and associated infrastructure instead? The PoW is quite expensive,
by decentralised 9y ago
Why don't we compare Bitcoin's energy footprint with that of all the banks, remittance shops and associated infrastructure instead?
The PoW is quite expensive, but remember that mining is a subsidised activity amounting to billions of dollars worth of rewards for the miners, many of whom make extensive use of hydro-electric and solar power.
There's the question of wether we need all this hashing power to protect the billions of dollars worth of bitcoin market cap.
The truth is that ASICs mining was not anticipated and neither was the "arms race" that made mining into a profession. With Proof of Stake consensus algorithms taking front stage in Ethereum, EOS and other blockchain projects, PoW is bound to be abandoned or significantly changed.
- sowbug 9y agoBoth ASIC mining and the arms race were anticipated as early as 2008: "[As] the network grows beyond a certain point, it would be left more and more to specialists with server farms of specialized hardware." https://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/msg09964.html https://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/msg09... "We should have a gentleman’s agreement to postpone the GPU arms race as long as we can for the good of the network. It’s much easer to get new users up to speed if they don’t have to worry about GPU drivers and compatibility. It’s nice how anyone with just a CPU can compete fairly equally right now." https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12.msg54#msg54 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12.msg54#msg54
- decentralised 9y agoYou're right.