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«is truly astounding» Would you say that the worldwide electricity consumption of Christmas decorative lights (2.3 GW assuming it's 3× the US) is "astounding"?
by mrb 9y ago
«is truly astounding»
Would you say that the worldwide electricity consumption of Christmas decorative lights (2.3 GW assuming it's 3× the US) is "astounding"? Well, Bitcoin miners consume less than that: I estimate 1.7 GW based on my previous research bounding it to 0.6-1.2 GW as of July.
http://blog.zorinaq.com/bitcoin-electricity-consumption http://blog.zorinaq.com/bitcoin-electricity-consumption
Why do miners receive such a disproportionate amount of criticism considering that so many other energy uses are vastly more wasteful by multiple orders of magnitudes... Cars alone waste 95% of their fuel energy. The US wastes 61-86% of its energy: https://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/26/us-wastes-61-86-of-its-energy/ https://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/26/us-wastes-61-86-of-its-... But, no, the average HN reader seems more concerned by these miners using 0.01% of the world's energy.
In the future, we may eventually reach a point where the energy use starts becoming worrying, but we are currently very far from that point.
- Frogolocalypse 9y agoI have no problem energy increasing in price if people think it is an issue. It will have little effect on the architecture of bitcoin. If anything, it will benefit it by increasing decentralization.
- panarky 9y agoCryptocurrencies consume a miniscule fraction of the energy that the legacy financial system wastes on office buildings, data centers, air travel and commuting employees. Why doesn't anyone complain that JPMorgan will "cost us our clean-energy future"? The great thing about a financial system defined by open-source software is that true innovation happens every day. Already we see testing with proof-of-stake, lightning network, etc. that are vastly more energy efficient.
- xiphias 9y agoThe biggest waste of the legacy systems are currency wars. Keeping up the petrodollar is wasting millions or at least hundres of thousends of people's life every year. There may be one more war agains Bitcoin, but if all of us convert to sound money, the ROI of wars go down substantially.