3 ms·
No, you got it wrong, the Bitcoin total power consumption is unknown but it can be bound from below by the hash rate and the most efficient mining hardware avai
by danbruc 9y ago
No, you got it wrong, the Bitcoin total power consumption is unknown but it can be bound from below by the hash rate and the most efficient mining hardware available and from above by the price, block reward, and energy costs assuming nobody is mining at a loss. Reread the paragraph before your quote.
[...] estimates that with prices the way they are now, it would be profitable for Bitcoin miners to burn through over 24 terawatt-hours of electricity annually [...]
- ajross 9y agoAll estimates I've seen are that bitcoin mining in practice is extraordinarily efficient and that new capacity comes online to track price increases quickly. You have evidence to the contrary that miners are leaving money on the table?
- danbruc 9y agoIf that is true, then the actual energy consumption would closely track the theoretically expected maximum. This shifts the question to how accurate the discussed estimate is but it still does not give the total energy consumption. But we could probably agree that it is probably on the same order of magnitude.