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I'm not suggesting that miners will invent new solutions themselves. I'm suggesting that they will put some of their profits towards research and development of

I'm not suggesting that miners will invent new solutions themselves. I'm suggesting that they will put some of their profits towards research and development of new solutions, and they will acquire promising startups to cut out costs. The need for cheaper electricity exists, but it's not clear where and when investors can make money. People aren't going to put their money into something that might bear fruit 10-20 years down the line, when there are many other investment opportunities available which have more promise of larger, or quicker profits. The bulk of the investment into clean energies comes from (or is subsidized by) governments who are notoriously bad with money. There's a limited market and it is not very competitive because they're not even able to compete with oil without subsidies. Having smart people is simply not enough. You need smart people who are willing to risk their own money to achieve their goals. Most academics are risking other people's money, which is why socialism does not work and capitalism produces the results.

andirk 8y ago
Miners use energy for their ASICs and whatever else the algorithms of the coins need. We are seeing innovations in chips. I can imagine there is or will be innovation in decreasing energy usage of said chips. For example, a chip that can't melt doesn't have a cooling cost. But a global solution to cheaper and cleaner energy is probably the #1 way to rule the world if you can figure out how.
- sparkie 8y ago
  Chips will get better, but we're approaching the limit of Moore's Law in terms of shrinking them to get the exponential gains we've seen over the past half century. The improvements in Hash/W are going to continue to slow until they're not worth the additional cost to fabricate. (Unless some radically new transistor technologies arise) My assumptions about the cost of mining were assuming that one can count the cost of the mining chip as negligible, which is certainly not the case now, but I believe will be the case in future as the chips get much cheaper, much more abundant and the period between iterations of the chips increases. Industrial miners will use the most efficient chips on the market, but their primary cost will be the electricity.

andirk 8y ago

Miners use energy for their ASICs and whatever else the algorithms of the coins need. We are seeing innovations in chips. I can imagine there is or will be innovation in decreasing energy usage of said chips. For example, a chip that can't melt doesn't have a cooling cost. But a global solution to cheaper and cleaner energy is probably the #1 way to rule the world if you can figure out how.

sparkie 8y ago
Chips will get better, but we're approaching the limit of Moore's Law in terms of shrinking them to get the exponential gains we've seen over the past half century. The improvements in Hash/W are going to continue to slow until they're not worth the additional cost to fabricate. (Unless some radically new transistor technologies arise) My assumptions about the cost of mining were assuming that one can count the cost of the mining chip as negligible, which is certainly not the case now, but I believe will be the case in future as the chips get much cheaper, much more abundant and the period between iterations of the chips increases. Industrial miners will use the most efficient chips on the market, but their primary cost will be the electricity.