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You could just move it to proof-of-stake. Seriously, even if you find value in Bitcoin, proof-of-work is unsustainable. At current rates it's burning 0.5% of

You could just move it to proof-of-stake. Seriously, even if you find value in Bitcoin, proof-of-work is unsustainable. At current rates it's burning 0.5% of world energy. If price went to $300k it would end up burning 3% of world energy. As the article notes, this is regardless of L2 solutions - energy use is purely a matter of market price.

limusrazor 5y ago
PoS is not as decentralized as PoW. With PoW, you can literally transform energy into cash. In order to be part of a PoS network, then you need to buy the token/coin first. What if you are in a country that restricts crypto? How can you participate in the network? The whole point of using blockchain is to make something truly decentralized. If you are sacrificing decentralization, then you should ask yourself whether you are using the proper data structure for the problem that you are solving.
TimJRobinson 5y ago
It's not quite market price, it's miner rewards. As Bitcoin gives off less and less rewards (it halves the amount every 4 years), the amount of miners should go down, as it then becomes unprofitable for a lot of them. This is actually a second problem of Bitcoin though - If in say 20 years it ends up being worth a lot, and gives very little mining revenue causing few people mine it, it becomes vulnerable to attack from nation states. Because the cost of a 51% attack is only a fraction of the possible rewards for a successful attack.
- cesarb 5y ago
  > As Bitcoin gives off less and less rewards (it halves the amount every 4 years), the amount of miners should go down, as it then becomes unprofitable for a lot of them. Unfortunately, there are second order effects. The miner reward is a constant selling pressure on Bitcoin, as miners must sell some of the rewards to pay for electricity and hardware. As Bitcoin gives off less and less rewards, this selling pressure reduces, which tends to increase the Bitcoin price (less supply for the same demand).

limusrazor 5y ago

PoS is not as decentralized as PoW. With PoW, you can literally transform energy into cash. In order to be part of a PoS network, then you need to buy the token/coin first. What if you are in a country that restricts crypto? How can you participate in the network? The whole point of using blockchain is to make something truly decentralized. If you are sacrificing decentralization, then you should ask yourself whether you are using the proper data structure for the problem that you are solving.

TimJRobinson 5y ago

It's not quite market price, it's miner rewards. As Bitcoin gives off less and less rewards (it halves the amount every 4 years), the amount of miners should go down, as it then becomes unprofitable for a lot of them. This is actually a second problem of Bitcoin though - If in say 20 years it ends up being worth a lot, and gives very little mining revenue causing few people mine it, it becomes vulnerable to attack from nation states. Because the cost of a 51% attack is only a fraction of the possible rewards for a successful attack.

cesarb 5y ago
> As Bitcoin gives off less and less rewards (it halves the amount every 4 years), the amount of miners should go down, as it then becomes unprofitable for a lot of them. Unfortunately, there are second order effects. The miner reward is a constant selling pressure on Bitcoin, as miners must sell some of the rewards to pay for electricity and hardware. As Bitcoin gives off less and less rewards, this selling pressure reduces, which tends to increase the Bitcoin price (less supply for the same demand).