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How much energy did it consume to mint all the physical metal coins we have in circulation? How much does it consume to mint fresh ones when the old ones are d

How much energy did it consume to mint all the physical metal coins we have in circulation? How much does it consume to mint fresh ones when the old ones are damaged? Bitcoins don't wear off, the ones we've been mining now will be in use for possibly centuries to come once the block reward is zero and only transaction fees will fund the miners. By then, mining will decrease a lot because people won't be willing to pay as much transaction fees as miners currently earn from minting coins. So this is completely equal to the question of how much energy our physical coin minting has cost us - except that physical coins actually are damaged and will be replaced! In the end they might consume more energy!

nexthash 6y ago
Ah, the Bitcoin gang has arrived! Have you considered the fact that coinage is actually for buying things? It drives economic activity! Now explain what Bitcoin does
- eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago
  If I need to buy something then I need to buy something and will use whatever money I have at hand. It doesn't matter what it is called.
NortySpock 6y ago
> Bitcoins don't wear off Sure, they just get trapped in a wallet that's lost in a hard-drive failure.
- eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago
  The cost of replacing them is essentially zero though: New ones don't have to be minted because the existing ones are divisible with 8 decimal places, and that can easily be increased. Instead of minting new ones, the value of the existing ones increases, resulting in the decimal point of the value of a Bitcoin slowly shifting. And the amount of currency which humans use typically is so small that storing the numbers to represent them is basically free, no matter if the decimal point shifts a bit. I would blind-guess that 128 bit will probably be enough until the heat death of the universe.
user-the-name 6y ago
> How much energy did it consume to mint all the physical metal coins we have in circulation? At lot less than what it takes to mine bitcoin. And bitcoin is a tiny, tiny, vanishingly small fraction of "all metal coins we have in circulation".

nexthash 6y ago

Ah, the Bitcoin gang has arrived! Have you considered the fact that coinage is actually for buying things? It drives economic activity! Now explain what Bitcoin does

eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago
If I need to buy something then I need to buy something and will use whatever money I have at hand. It doesn't matter what it is called.

NortySpock 6y ago

> Bitcoins don't wear off Sure, they just get trapped in a wallet that's lost in a hard-drive failure.

eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago
The cost of replacing them is essentially zero though: New ones don't have to be minted because the existing ones are divisible with 8 decimal places, and that can easily be increased. Instead of minting new ones, the value of the existing ones increases, resulting in the decimal point of the value of a Bitcoin slowly shifting. And the amount of currency which humans use typically is so small that storing the numbers to represent them is basically free, no matter if the decimal point shifts a bit. I would blind-guess that 128 bit will probably be enough until the heat death of the universe.

user-the-name 6y ago

> How much energy did it consume to mint all the physical metal coins we have in circulation? At lot less than what it takes to mine bitcoin. And bitcoin is a tiny, tiny, vanishingly small fraction of "all metal coins we have in circulation".