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It's trivially the case that the value produced by bitcoin mining exceeds the cost of the electricity, else nobody would bother.
by jstanley 9y ago
It's trivially the case that the value produced by bitcoin mining exceeds the cost of the electricity, else nobody would bother.
- ben_w 9y ago#cough# JavaScript cryptocurrency miners in adverts, #cough# cloud computing with stolen resources, #cough# anticipation of future bitcoin value when estimating cost effectiveness
- mikeash 9y agoIt's trivial that the value exceeds the price of the electricity. Unfortunately, electricity is often priced well below cost once you account for externalities like pollution.
- MereInterest 9y agoAren't bitcoin transactions dependent on miners continually mining in order to verify transactions? It sounds like bitcoin is relying on a perpetual profit margin for mining, in order to make transactions possible.
- indubitable 9y agoThis is the point of transaction fees in bitcoin. Fees get 'attached' to the block that is mined and go the miner. So even when all bitcoins have been distributed there will remain a profit motive for mining. The difficulty in mining is also automatically algorithmically adjusted, so if the industrial scale miners move onto other things - suddenly it might become profitable to go back to GPU mining. And the fewer people mining, the more profitable it would become.
- s73ver_ 9y agoIs it? And are those who are consuming the electricity paying the entire cost for it, including impacts to the environment?