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But why single out Bitcoin? What about all the data centers serving Netflix movies? Others might say those are excess. Consider the annual energy consumption o
by jkepler 4y ago
But why single out Bitcoin? What about all the data centers serving Netflix movies? Others might say those are excess. Consider the annual energy consumption of tumble-dryers in the USA (which uses more energy than bitcoin mining): in Europe where I live most people I know hand their clothing to dry, thus they might consider American dryers to be an excess of electric consumption.
Last time I checked, bitcoin miners have to compete for energy same as anyone else---and when energy prices rise, they move their operations to where its cheaper.
That why they're using methane gas that would have been flared by oil companies to generate electricity to mine bitcoin in the west Texas oil fields... which is net positive, because the resulting CO2 emissions are 84x less carbon-intense for the atmosphere than the flared methane would have been.
Or, there is Vespene Energy, a bitcoin mining startup helping US municipal landfill operators comply with new expensive EPA methane emissions regulations by using landfills emitted methane to generate electricity, which they then use to mine bitcoin and they share the profits with the landfill operators. The cool thing with their business model is they can simply sell the electricity to other grid customers, but the reason they often end up mining Bitcoin with the power is because the landfills are often not near cities or large areas of electricity demand.
If one takes time to research this, one would see that bitcoin miners have a strong financial incentive to find the cheapest sources of power, which are typically stranded or waste power. Bitcoin mining is improving the environment.
- djbusby 4y agoWhere's the source on the methane usage? Last time that came up here IIRC it was a super small fraction of the energy production. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=bitcoin%20methane&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- jkepler 4y agoYou're correct that using waste methane to generate electricity for bitcoin mining is small, but its growing, which is good news. And this is significant for the climate as methane gas has a /far/ larger warming effect than CO2. According to the IEA (International Energy Agency), acriculture, fossil fuels, and waste are the top three human sources of methane emissions (the too source, wetlands, is natural). Bitcoin mining companies have business models than can significantly mitigate the fossil fuels and landfills(waste) sources of human methane emissions. https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/sources-of-methane-emissions https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/sources-of-me...
- djbusby 4y agoI'm not trying to be correct (I'm still confused). And here you stated they "can" mitigate - which sounds like it's not actually in practice (yet?)
- socialismisok 4y agoBecause Netflix and data centers provide a huge tangible good relative to their energy cost. Bitcoin just doesn't. It might in the future, but there way it runs today? No way.
- dudebrooo 4y agoYou are presenting a disingenuous argument, intentional or not. Netflix is literally 50% of "Bread and Circus". Bitcoin is a threat to the most important part of the power structure. With inflation raging and a cold European winter coming (and that's not to say that plenty in north america won't be choosing between heat and food) if I were you I would be more careful with how overtly you defend the propaganda outlets of the status quo.
- socialismisok 4y agoI'm really not. Human entertainment has been valuable for as long as there have been humans. We bond as a society over shared oral traditions. Music, art, dance, performance... We value it deeply. To try and wave it away as frivolous or somehow unimportant denies something deeply fundamental in what we are as a species. Bitcoin does little to nothing. It's not a threat to any power structures. It's just not. At best it's a way to move some value around that's too small scale for governments to care about. I have no problem with the ideas of distributed ledgers. Hell I'm about as anti capitalist as any leftist, I just think Bitcoin is a stupid way to achieve the goals it has. > if I were you I would be more careful with how overtly you defend the propaganda outlets of the status quo. Is this a threat? I can't even understand what you are implying. That the proles will tear me apart for saying "I think Netflix is ok"?