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If the price of energy is calculated with corresponding carbon tax included, shouldn't Bitcoin be neutral?

• wmf 6y ago
  That would be true after a carbon tax exists.
• westurner 6y ago
  > If the price of energy is calculated with corresponding carbon tax included, shouldn't Bitcoin be neutral? Yes, but there are vastly more energy efficient substitute DLTs with near-zero switching costs. Litecoin and scrypt (instead of AES256), for example. Apply a USD/kWhr threshold across all industries. Is this change (and focus on the external costs of energy production) more the result of penalties or incentives? Pre-mined coins are vastly more energy efficient (with tx costs <1¢ and similarly minimal kWhr/tx costs), but the market doesn't trust undefined escrow terms that are fair game in commodities and retail markets. We have trouble otherwise storing energy from noon to commute and dinner time; whereas a commodity like grain may keep for quite awhile. Bitcoin serves as a demand subsidy when heavily-subsidized energy prices crash due to oversupply (that we should recognize as temporary because we are moving to electric vehicles and we need to reach production volumes so that, in comparison to alternatives, renewables are now more cost effective) In the US, we have neither carbon taxes nor intraday prices. The EU has carbon taxes and electrical energy markets.
  • ourlordcaffeine 6y ago
    >In the US, we have neither carbon taxes nor intraday prices. Like, no intraday electricity market?