3 ms·
The whole point in Cryptos is they are fundamentally "backed" by the power of the network. If it were trivial to compute the next block, there's not much value
by pdq 9y ago
The whole point in Cryptos is they are fundamentally "backed" by the power of the network.
If it were trivial to compute the next block, there's not much value in the network and the coins.
I don't see how Crypto using electricity is any more wasteful than Google searches using electricity.
- wmf 9y agoIf Google used 100x more energy per search than Bing, would you consider it wasteful? Now compare PoW against SCP.
- beaner 9y agoWhat is SCP?
- lightbyte 9y agoStellar Consensus Protocol: https://www.stellar.org/papers/stellar-consensus-protocol.pdf https://www.stellar.org/papers/stellar-consensus-protocol.pd... https://www.stellar.org/blog/stellar-consensus-protocol-proof-code/ https://www.stellar.org/blog/stellar-consensus-protocol-proo...
- nosuchthing 9y agoThe utility of the service is disproportionately minuscule in relation to the insane amount of resources in energy and hardware currently used for BTC or ETH. For a database, with 3-4 transactions per second [1], and each transaction consuming the equivalent amount of energy to power 1.6 houses for a day [2] it begs the question of if and when a viable alternative arises that is more efficient at offering an improved service with less waste. [1] https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions [2] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/aek3za/bitcoin-could-consume-as-much-electricity-as-denmark-by-2020 https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/aek3za/bitcoin-co... https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ae3p7e/bitcoin-is-unsustainable https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ae3p7e/bitcoin-is...
- omarchowdhury 9y agoEthereum is going to move to proof of stake instead of proof of work and this will be magnitudes more energy efficient than proof of work.