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Does this energy consumption come more from mining (i.e. finding the new bitcoins) or from transactions? If the former, then the Bitcoin network should find a

by hbbio 7y ago

Does this energy consumption come more from mining (i.e. finding the new bitcoins) or from transactions? If the former, then the Bitcoin network should find a way to reward nodes for transactions in a more environmentally-friendly manner since mining should (in my understanding) disappear or become insignificant at some point.

cycrutchfield 7y ago
Why would miners ever agree to that?
- quickthrower2 7y ago
  Bitcoin miners by definition wouldn't. If they did, they are not mining bitcoin anymore, but a fork.
- onion2k 7y ago
  The alternative is government regulation eg banning mining cryptocurrencies.
  - solveit 7y ago
    Bitcoin was literally designed for the express purpose of surviving that.
    - onion2k 7y ago
      In the sense that bitcoin miners can 'just' more their operations to mining-friendly countries until there are no more mining-friendly countries, sure. But pragmatically Bitcoin would not survive a coordinated assault on it's legality if enough countries decided it's too environmentally toxic. Plus, there's no reason why Bitcoin should survive. Another cryptocurrency that's much more energy efficient would work just as well, so people could move their money if regulation was likely. It's one of the existisitential threats that Bitcoin faces in the long term.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Sander_Marechal 7y ago
It's both at the same time. "Mining" is just a fancy word for securing transactions. The new bitcoins are a reward for doing the securing, along with the transaction fees. Over time, securing transactions will yield less new bitcoins but will still keep yielding transaction fees.
masklinn 7y ago
> Does this energy consumption come more from mining (i.e. finding the new bitcoins) or from transactions? They're not different things. Mined blocks is how you add transactions to the chain (because bitcoin is PoW-based). The miner is rewarded as part of that process by embedding a coinbase transaction in the block, which lets them create a set number of new coins out of nowhere (as well as collecting transaction fees from the transactions they include in the block)
solveit 7y ago
Almost every altcoin and their grandmothers are working on it, but it's a legitimately difficult problem.
thisisit 7y ago
I am no expert but I fail to see what will be an environment-friendly solution will really be. The problem is any solution which doesn't need a boat load of money will be get concentrated quickly because everyone and their grandmother wants in.

by hbbio 7y ago

cycrutchfield 7y ago

Why would miners ever agree to that?

quickthrower2 7y ago
Bitcoin miners by definition wouldn't. If they did, they are not mining bitcoin anymore, but a fork.
onion2k 7y ago
The alternative is government regulation eg banning mining cryptocurrencies.
- solveit 7y ago
  Bitcoin was literally designed for the express purpose of surviving that.
  - onion2k 7y ago
    In the sense that bitcoin miners can 'just' more their operations to mining-friendly countries until there are no more mining-friendly countries, sure. But pragmatically Bitcoin would not survive a coordinated assault on it's legality if enough countries decided it's too environmentally toxic. Plus, there's no reason why Bitcoin should survive. Another cryptocurrency that's much more energy efficient would work just as well, so people could move their money if regulation was likely. It's one of the existisitential threats that Bitcoin faces in the long term.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Sander_Marechal 7y ago

It's both at the same time. "Mining" is just a fancy word for securing transactions. The new bitcoins are a reward for doing the securing, along with the transaction fees. Over time, securing transactions will yield less new bitcoins but will still keep yielding transaction fees.

masklinn 7y ago

> Does this energy consumption come more from mining (i.e. finding the new bitcoins) or from transactions? They're not different things. Mined blocks is how you add transactions to the chain (because bitcoin is PoW-based). The miner is rewarded as part of that process by embedding a coinbase transaction in the block, which lets them create a set number of new coins out of nowhere (as well as collecting transaction fees from the transactions they include in the block)

solveit 7y ago

Almost every altcoin and their grandmothers are working on it, but it's a legitimately difficult problem.

thisisit 7y ago

I am no expert but I fail to see what will be an environment-friendly solution will really be. The problem is any solution which doesn't need a boat load of money will be get concentrated quickly because everyone and their grandmother wants in.