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What’s the environmental impact of Zoom running away with my CPU? What about Chrome? I’ve finally accepted that I have to switch to Firefox because of Chrome’s

What’s the environmental impact of Zoom running away with my CPU? What about Chrome? I’ve finally accepted that I have to switch to Firefox because of Chrome’s performance problems. Apple and Intel and thermals are a know problem, but Chrome is awful too. There seems to be some sort of problematic interaction between MacOS, Chrome, and Google’s software updater that triggers runaway CPU usage. See: https://mobile.twitter.com/lorenb/timelines/1338892756752732169 https://mobile.twitter.com/lorenb/timelines/1338892756752732... If there’s a flaw here that turns millions of computers into space heaters, what’s the impact? Inefficiency is all around us. The Bitcoin inefficiency is by design and it’s a big part of why Bitcoin works. On the other hand, it feels like the paper clip game; eventually all matter in the universe will be converted into energy to mine Bitcoin.

dralley 6y ago
A single bitcoin transaction (amortized) uses as much electricity as an entire house uses (on average) in more than 2 days. This is like saying why should a massive agricultural project worry about saving water when your uncle Steve leaves the sink running while brushing his teeth. Or complaining about a splinter while impaled on a 2x4. The scale of the inefficiency is so large as to be difficult to truly comprehend.
- NullPrefix 6y ago
  >A single bitcoin transaction (amortized) uses as much electricity as an entire house uses (on average) in more than 2 days. That could be true, but how much energy does the finance world consumes through all the quantitative easings and other shenanigans? I doubt it's even possible to burn that worth of energy in electricity.
  - godlikeNoob 6y ago
    quantitative easing -> Needed to ward off a recession as seen fit by most of the economists ... Not saying it's efficient / needed, can't say anything for sure since I am a lowly dev and not a world class economist This whole concept of bitcoin having value just because it's finite is asinine ... The whole world used gold standard and there was a reason the US and other nations got rid of it after WWI. Comparing bitcoin's energy usage to traditional financial systems makes zero sense, mainly because traditional financial systems have a much bigger purpose. I'll never buy any goods or services with my bitcoin because of the upside potential and I'll never accept payments in bitcoin because of the downside risk.
  - UncleMeat 6y ago
    BTC replaces currency and currency transmission. It does not replace all financial systems or policy. If you just compare what BTC does, it does it like five orders of magnitude less efficiently.
- aeternum 6y ago
  The per-transaction electricity measure is pretty flawed as the number of transactions per block is independent from the mining difficulty. Block size has already been increased twice (BIP 102 and then by SegWit), and can again in the future as number of bitcoin transactions scales up. Over 75% of bitcoin miners are also now merge-mining (mining for other blockchains like RSK for example so this hash power secures not only BTC, but other currencies as well.

dralley 6y ago

A single bitcoin transaction (amortized) uses as much electricity as an entire house uses (on average) in more than 2 days. This is like saying why should a massive agricultural project worry about saving water when your uncle Steve leaves the sink running while brushing his teeth. Or complaining about a splinter while impaled on a 2x4. The scale of the inefficiency is so large as to be difficult to truly comprehend.

NullPrefix 6y ago
>A single bitcoin transaction (amortized) uses as much electricity as an entire house uses (on average) in more than 2 days. That could be true, but how much energy does the finance world consumes through all the quantitative easings and other shenanigans? I doubt it's even possible to burn that worth of energy in electricity.
- godlikeNoob 6y ago
  quantitative easing -> Needed to ward off a recession as seen fit by most of the economists ... Not saying it's efficient / needed, can't say anything for sure since I am a lowly dev and not a world class economist This whole concept of bitcoin having value just because it's finite is asinine ... The whole world used gold standard and there was a reason the US and other nations got rid of it after WWI. Comparing bitcoin's energy usage to traditional financial systems makes zero sense, mainly because traditional financial systems have a much bigger purpose. I'll never buy any goods or services with my bitcoin because of the upside potential and I'll never accept payments in bitcoin because of the downside risk.
- UncleMeat 6y ago
  BTC replaces currency and currency transmission. It does not replace all financial systems or policy. If you just compare what BTC does, it does it like five orders of magnitude less efficiently.
aeternum 6y ago
The per-transaction electricity measure is pretty flawed as the number of transactions per block is independent from the mining difficulty. Block size has already been increased twice (BIP 102 and then by SegWit), and can again in the future as number of bitcoin transactions scales up. Over 75% of bitcoin miners are also now merge-mining (mining for other blockchains like RSK for example so this hash power secures not only BTC, but other currencies as well.