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The "Bitcoin as battery" analogy fails for at least two significant reasons, IMO: 1. If you spend energy to produce, say, charged batteries or aluminum or biod

The "Bitcoin as battery" analogy fails for at least two significant reasons, IMO: 1. If you spend energy to produce, say, charged batteries or aluminum or biodiesel, that allows you to do something useful with those resources without needing corresponding energy consumption later. When you spend energy to mine Bitcoin, there's no way to use it to decrease your future energy needs; you can only use it to pay others and induce them to produce something you want, spending even more energy in the process. 2. With most energy production methods, you can get at least a bit of extra efficiency by scaling up. But the Bitcoin economy in aggregate can't produce coins at a higher rate; the best you can do is compete for a larger slice of the fixed pie. So even though each individual miner is incentivized to spend more and more energy, the economies of scale are negative.

mwattsun 5y ago
When Nick Grossman's article was posted 9 months ago [1], there were people who argued in favor of Bitcoin as a battery, but now it seems Bitcoin is so hated that my original comment is headed into negative territory and I'm arguing alone, so I'd use this as a sell indicator if I had any Bitcoin. I don't like the energy wastage of Bitcoin anymore than anyone else. This needs to be fixed and firing up old fossil fuel plants, for example in upstate New York, needs to be outlawed. I just thought the Bitcoin as battery was interesting and I stand by it. I can imagine cases where abundant renewable energy sources are not being utilized because they are geographically remote and Bitcoin mining is a way to get some value out of it. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26609247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26609247 [2] https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/some-locals-say-bitcoin-mining-operation-ruining-one-finger-lakes-n1272938 https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/some-locals-say-...

mwattsun 5y ago

When Nick Grossman's article was posted 9 months ago [1], there were people who argued in favor of Bitcoin as a battery, but now it seems Bitcoin is so hated that my original comment is headed into negative territory and I'm arguing alone, so I'd use this as a sell indicator if I had any Bitcoin. I don't like the energy wastage of Bitcoin anymore than anyone else. This needs to be fixed and firing up old fossil fuel plants, for example in upstate New York, needs to be outlawed. I just thought the Bitcoin as battery was interesting and I stand by it. I can imagine cases where abundant renewable energy sources are not being utilized because they are geographically remote and Bitcoin mining is a way to get some value out of it. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26609247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26609247 [2] https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/some-locals-say-bitcoin-mining-operation-ruining-one-finger-lakes-n1272938 https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/some-locals-say-...