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Cool, except so-called renewable energy sources still built using non-renewable materials. There also physical limits to efficiency of energy transformation an

by tikej 6y ago

Cool, except so-called renewable energy sources still built using non-renewable materials. There also physical limits to efficiency of energy transformation and slightly less heat loss per unit of energy with much more energy production is not exactly what climate needs right now.

beaner 6y ago
Haven't heard these points before but I'm not sure that they apply to proof-of-work specifically.
dane-pgp 6y ago
"The estimated calculations presented in this work prove that the total power produced by us was 0.0414% in 2000 and 0.0577% in 2017 of the global solar power reaching the Earth’s surface"[0]. So even if Bitcoin mining were to cause global electricity production to increase by an order of magnitude, it would still be a rounding error compared to the amount of global warming caused by the Sun directly. Thinking about it thermodynamically, though, in a future where Bitcoin mining uses only excess solar and wind energy, it wouldn't be adding any heat to the planet because that energy would have become heat anyway. [0] https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/16/3069/pdf https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/16/3069/pdf
- tikej 6y ago
  Ok, of course true that sum of heat from sun that reaches earth remains constant no matter whether we use it. However, how it’s stored/used on the earth is another matter. E.g. if it’s absorbed by plants/fungi/other life forms and stored as biomass, part of it doesn’t contribute to heating of the atmosphere/oceans, contrarily to when it’s converted to electricity (where large part is lost due to heating of the solar panels) and then used to computing, where from physics perspective it’s mostly heating (only tiny part is converted to useful work). Also what about the Manufacruring/production of devices to convert solar/wind energy to electricity and to mine bitcoins? It’s based on non-renewable elements (of course any chemical process is reversible given enough energy but Entropy still grows mercilessly) and requires a lot of extra energy. EDIT: as far as we know, thermodynamically all energy will become heat at the end (although not sure if it should be called heat, since there will be no flux). However, we as humanity are/should be quite concerned first about decades and earth’s atmosphere/oceans (and connected parts) not millennia and energetically balance Earth as whole to come. In principle energy from sun could also be stored in form of chemical bonds energy (as it’s the case for biomass) or even nuclear energy (yup, sun-powered nuclear fusion sounds unlikely but why not ;). Then biomass (less efficiently) or nuclei/atoms could be ejected from earth allowing to disperse sun’s thermal energy somewhere else.

by tikej 6y ago

beaner 6y ago

Haven't heard these points before but I'm not sure that they apply to proof-of-work specifically.

dane-pgp 6y ago

"The estimated calculations presented in this work prove that the total power produced by us was 0.0414% in 2000 and 0.0577% in 2017 of the global solar power reaching the Earth’s surface"[0]. So even if Bitcoin mining were to cause global electricity production to increase by an order of magnitude, it would still be a rounding error compared to the amount of global warming caused by the Sun directly. Thinking about it thermodynamically, though, in a future where Bitcoin mining uses only excess solar and wind energy, it wouldn't be adding any heat to the planet because that energy would have become heat anyway. [0] https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/16/3069/pdf https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/16/3069/pdf

tikej 6y ago
Ok, of course true that sum of heat from sun that reaches earth remains constant no matter whether we use it. However, how it’s stored/used on the earth is another matter. E.g. if it’s absorbed by plants/fungi/other life forms and stored as biomass, part of it doesn’t contribute to heating of the atmosphere/oceans, contrarily to when it’s converted to electricity (where large part is lost due to heating of the solar panels) and then used to computing, where from physics perspective it’s mostly heating (only tiny part is converted to useful work). Also what about the Manufacruring/production of devices to convert solar/wind energy to electricity and to mine bitcoins? It’s based on non-renewable elements (of course any chemical process is reversible given enough energy but Entropy still grows mercilessly) and requires a lot of extra energy. EDIT: as far as we know, thermodynamically all energy will become heat at the end (although not sure if it should be called heat, since there will be no flux). However, we as humanity are/should be quite concerned first about decades and earth’s atmosphere/oceans (and connected parts) not millennia and energetically balance Earth as whole to come. In principle energy from sun could also be stored in form of chemical bonds energy (as it’s the case for biomass) or even nuclear energy (yup, sun-powered nuclear fusion sounds unlikely but why not ;). Then biomass (less efficiently) or nuclei/atoms could be ejected from earth allowing to disperse sun’s thermal energy somewhere else.