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Everyone always bitches about how much electricity is used mining cryptocurrencies yet somehow Slack and other vendors don't get slapped by the same argument.

by mszcz 6y ago

Everyone always bitches about how much electricity is used mining cryptocurrencies yet somehow Slack and other vendors don't get slapped by the same argument. Each time my wife turns on her work issued laptop (T470s, i7, 16GB RAM, SSD) with mandatory Norton Antivirus and mandatory Slack it's always fans on 100% and it pretty much stays that way all day. Not to mention the fact that it's a fucking chore to work on it because of the CPU utilization so the laptop usually stays on longer. I wonder how much extra electricity does that use since there are a lot of people in her org and a lot of other orgs using Slack and whatnot...

Barrin92 6y ago
It's probably a reasonable thing to discuss but it's on an entirely different scale than cryptocurrencies. One single bitcoin transaction currently consumes about 210kwh, so about 20 days worth of energy use of an entire American household. With some napkin maths I'd say a laptop maybe uses 150 kwh a year. Google seems to suggest a heavily used machine draws about 30% more power than an idling one, so over a year your laptop going ham is still only a fraction of a single bitcoin transaction.
- mszcz 6y ago
  Oh, I was too ignorant to do the math myself, thanks & sorry ;) It does seem that the comparison I made is apples & elephants, but I do think that the point still kinda stands. Unoptimized monstrosities like Slack waste a lot of electricity, decrease producitivity and make life miserable.
- keymone 6y ago
  It’s completely useless metric. One bitcoin transaction can represent a billion of off-chain exchanges. Energy is spent securing the chain, not executing transactions.
  - Barrin92 6y ago
    >One bitcoin transaction can represent a billion of off-chain exchanges It can't because the entire uniqueness of crypto-currencies lies in their decentralisation. If you make an arbitrary large block you'll increase the running costs of the node, which will centralise the control of the chain. If you have a bazillion transactions on a block you've just reinvented a bank, because the integrity of countless of transactions then lies with one institution outside of the actual chain, and the only one who'll run the node is someone with a huge data-center
    - keymone 6y ago
      I said off-chain. Look up lightning network.
pdimitar 6y ago
Even in this thread people talk about RAM usage as well as electricity and I think they are missing the point: many people use company-issued laptops and when you have pieces of software constantly thrashing the CPU the experience goes to stressful levels of noise (as you described). I'd honestly help with a Slack rewrite in a less wasteful technology for that reason alone: let people's laptops sit quiet!

by mszcz 6y ago

Barrin92 6y ago

It's probably a reasonable thing to discuss but it's on an entirely different scale than cryptocurrencies. One single bitcoin transaction currently consumes about 210kwh, so about 20 days worth of energy use of an entire American household. With some napkin maths I'd say a laptop maybe uses 150 kwh a year. Google seems to suggest a heavily used machine draws about 30% more power than an idling one, so over a year your laptop going ham is still only a fraction of a single bitcoin transaction.

mszcz 6y ago
Oh, I was too ignorant to do the math myself, thanks & sorry ;) It does seem that the comparison I made is apples & elephants, but I do think that the point still kinda stands. Unoptimized monstrosities like Slack waste a lot of electricity, decrease producitivity and make life miserable.
keymone 6y ago
It’s completely useless metric. One bitcoin transaction can represent a billion of off-chain exchanges. Energy is spent securing the chain, not executing transactions.
- Barrin92 6y ago
  >One bitcoin transaction can represent a billion of off-chain exchanges It can't because the entire uniqueness of crypto-currencies lies in their decentralisation. If you make an arbitrary large block you'll increase the running costs of the node, which will centralise the control of the chain. If you have a bazillion transactions on a block you've just reinvented a bank, because the integrity of countless of transactions then lies with one institution outside of the actual chain, and the only one who'll run the node is someone with a huge data-center
  - keymone 6y ago
    I said off-chain. Look up lightning network.

pdimitar 6y ago

Even in this thread people talk about RAM usage as well as electricity and I think they are missing the point: many people use company-issued laptops and when you have pieces of software constantly thrashing the CPU the experience goes to stressful levels of noise (as you described). I'd honestly help with a Slack rewrite in a less wasteful technology for that reason alone: let people's laptops sit quiet!