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You have your causal chain reversed: enormous amounts of electricity are spent on proof-of-work because it is profitable. There is no minimum amount of work req
by clarkmoody 8y ago
You have your causal chain reversed: enormous amounts of electricity are spent on proof-of-work because it is profitable. There is no minimum amount of work required to "sustain" the system. Of course you lose security with less work performed, but the system can be sustained.
- realusername 8y agoYeah of course but if you want Bitcoin to be used by everybody (that's the goal of a currency after all), it becomes thus very profitable to mine and therefore an enormous amount of electricity is used. That's what I meant by a scaling issue, it works as long as there's not too many users.
- hndamien 8y agoThe energy cost of mining gold is proportional to the price of gold.
- moomin 8y agoWhen discussing environmental damage, I’m not sure gold is the thing you want to be comparing to.
- hndamien 8y agoJust making a point about the economics. The environmental destruction is caused by the energy production in the case of Bitcoin mining. In the case of gold mining, it is done by the mining.