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Bitcoin's energy consumption is a feature, not a bug. The amount of energy consumed by the network will continue to increase, as it should, as it secures more w

Bitcoin's energy consumption is a feature, not a bug. The amount of energy consumed by the network will continue to increase, as it should, as it secures more wealth. A currency that's based on energy has been speculated about for decades, such as by Buckminster Fuller, which he called the Kilowatt Dollar: http://roperld.com/science/CurrencySystems.htm http://roperld.com/science/CurrencySystems.htm Bitcoin is the first attempt at such a money that might actually work. https://tftc.io/martys-bent/issue-1053/ https://tftc.io/martys-bent/issue-1053/ If you're curious about the connection between Bitcoin and the energy sector these are worth looking at. * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvtGQ-7O1Tw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvtGQ-7O1Tw * https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/bitcoin-energy-use-compare-industry https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/bitcoin-energy-use-comp... * https://youtu.be/b-7dMVcVWgc https://youtu.be/b-7dMVcVWgc * https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/bitcoin-is-humanitarian-and-environmental https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/bitcoin-is-humanitarian-...

QuadrupleA 5y ago
But is the Kilowatt dollar idea based on irrevocably wasting the energy, i.e. on useless hash puzzles?
- Quindecillion 5y ago
  "Wasted" is a value judgement. Miners put the effort in to procure the energy and then choose to spend it on hashes. It is by definition not wasted. You know Christmas lights in the USA use up more energy than the Bitcoin network does for the same period? Is that "wasted"? Ultimately that's up to the spenders of that energy to decide.
RedBeetDeadpool 5y ago
For what its worth, this is a difficult concept for most people to understand. I've held crypto since the early days, went to ethereum believing in POS, then crypto "3.0", and only now have I returned realizing what it all meant. Granted most people barely understand how the economy today works, many times out of denial.
- Quindecillion 5y ago
  Same. I've only recently (mid-2021) deeply understood the implications of Bitcoin, despite hearing about it in 2009, buying some in 2013, and losing some in the MtGox hack. Clearly I'm a slow learner. I think people are vastly underestimating the impact of Bitcoin embedding itself within the energy sector, and providing an accessible and permissionless escape hatch to millions (billions?) of people whose currencies are hyper-inflating.
gfody 5y ago
> The amount of energy consumed by the network will continue to increase, as it should, as it secures more wealth. this is very apt. after exhausting the worlds resources guarding our money from each other maybe we'll reflect that it was money that was the bad idea and bitcoin was just an implementation detail
- masegod 5y ago
  Bitcoin consumes far less energy than gold or banking at full adoption, Overall this is an environmental improvement.
- Quindecillion 5y ago
  Money is just a psychological-technology that vastly improves efficiency of trade. It's not exactly feasible to return to a barter system, unless you have some other way of solving the "double coincidence of wants" problem? One of the innovations of Bitcoin is that it serves purely as a monetary good, so there's no other demand for it outside of it serving its role as money. Counter that with gold which has many other applications. To be fair, fiat achieved this too, but it came with disastrous trade-offs...

QuadrupleA 5y ago

But is the Kilowatt dollar idea based on irrevocably wasting the energy, i.e. on useless hash puzzles?

Quindecillion 5y ago
"Wasted" is a value judgement. Miners put the effort in to procure the energy and then choose to spend it on hashes. It is by definition not wasted. You know Christmas lights in the USA use up more energy than the Bitcoin network does for the same period? Is that "wasted"? Ultimately that's up to the spenders of that energy to decide.

RedBeetDeadpool 5y ago

For what its worth, this is a difficult concept for most people to understand. I've held crypto since the early days, went to ethereum believing in POS, then crypto "3.0", and only now have I returned realizing what it all meant. Granted most people barely understand how the economy today works, many times out of denial.

Quindecillion 5y ago
Same. I've only recently (mid-2021) deeply understood the implications of Bitcoin, despite hearing about it in 2009, buying some in 2013, and losing some in the MtGox hack. Clearly I'm a slow learner. I think people are vastly underestimating the impact of Bitcoin embedding itself within the energy sector, and providing an accessible and permissionless escape hatch to millions (billions?) of people whose currencies are hyper-inflating.

gfody 5y ago

> The amount of energy consumed by the network will continue to increase, as it should, as it secures more wealth. this is very apt. after exhausting the worlds resources guarding our money from each other maybe we'll reflect that it was money that was the bad idea and bitcoin was just an implementation detail

masegod 5y ago
Bitcoin consumes far less energy than gold or banking at full adoption, Overall this is an environmental improvement.
Quindecillion 5y ago
Money is just a psychological-technology that vastly improves efficiency of trade. It's not exactly feasible to return to a barter system, unless you have some other way of solving the "double coincidence of wants" problem? One of the innovations of Bitcoin is that it serves purely as a monetary good, so there's no other demand for it outside of it serving its role as money. Counter that with gold which has many other applications. To be fair, fiat achieved this too, but it came with disastrous trade-offs...