3 ms·
after a halving (every 210.000 bitcoin blocks, roughly every 4 years), all other things being equal (bitcoin price, energy price, bitcoin fees, … and enough ch
by nfin 5y ago
after a halving (every 210.000 bitcoin blocks, roughly every 4 years), all other things being equal (bitcoin price, energy price, bitcoin fees, … and enough chip production), the energy consumption would get cut in half (as the reward gets cut by two).
This fact should stay true for another 2-3 halvings (including same energy consumption if price doubles which is the same), until the factor 0.5 (energy consumption after halving) starts to increase to 1 when/if higher fees compensate for the diminished issuance of new coins (while issuance of new coins goes to 0).
Because fees for now are very low, in the big picture and almost not relevant in the power consumption calculstions.
But until these about 2-4 halvings happen (=Y), price might increased by factor X and energy consumption only X/2^Y (which could even be a decrease if price does not go up much!). And if price would stay the same, then energy consumption would actually drop by 50% every halving! (if all other things being equal and supply of miners and mining chips were not a problem).
So to sum it up differently: Bitcoin consumes a lot of energy to have a fair new issuance of coins. Instead of being created out of nothing and being distributed unfairly (worldwide privacy issuance of a new coin is REALISTICALLY very very very hard, and has been tried by many projects and all failed), bitcoin gives you new coins for the same amount that you burn energy, so you can‘t fake it or corrupt it in the hands of politicians or any other left/right/religious/… group
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]