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People have been saying that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general will die soon for a while now. It has not happened. I say that it's too soon to say. Bitco

People have been saying that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general will die soon for a while now. It has not happened. I say that it's too soon to say. Bitcoin will need to change its power consumption ways, that's for sure. But I'm one that believes that instead of reducing its power consumption, Bitcoin, the community, will find better ways to produce green power.

smoldesu 4y ago
Ironically, the past month has been much worse for Ethereum than Bitcoin, price-wise.
- WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
  Ethereum has a pricing problem. How do you price an infinite asset that's cheap to produce? Previously you could peg it to the cost of production. Now its price will be directly influenced by how much it earns. I suspect that as time passes its price will go down reflecting what it costs to produce. It's good for the currency and apps that are created around it but I suspect it will be bad as an asset investment. It has a bright future but the price appreciation of Ether by speculation is over.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    An infinitely deflationary currency will be hard to popularize as anything other than a fiat. With the regulation around custodial Ethereum, I doubt the whole "dApp" ecosystem is going to go anywhere beyond where it stalled-out circa-2017.
kevinak 4y ago
No Bitcoin does not need to change its power consumption ways. It literally incentivises the build out of renewable energy. It will fix itself in time.
- woeh 4y ago
  How does Bitcoin have literal incentives to build out renewable energy? I've heard the claim before, but I'm not following. Doesn't Bitcoin mining just incentivize generating energy in general - green or otherwise? As a counterpoint: A recent study from Cambridge [0] estimates most of Bitcoins energy consumption still to be from fossil fuels. [0] https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/insight/2022/a-deep-dive-into-bitcoin's-environmental-impact/ https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/insight/2022/a-deep-dive-into-bitc...
  - adammarples 4y ago
    One thing that I could say is that bitcoin mining can happen anywhere while typically energy has to be transported to population hubs. I'm not sure I agree that this fact has incentivised much renewables building.
  - kevinak 4y ago
    It incentivises using the cheapest energy which is renewable. Bitcoin could even be greenhouse negative - just stick a mine on top of every landfill around and you have a recipe to get rid of methane gas. Or on oil fields where they accidentally run into gas pockets. Looks to me like GHG emissions are going down this year, from that report. I would expect that to continue going forward as more miners are deployed on top of cheap electricity sources :)
    - woeh 4y ago
      Isn't every energy consumer incentivized to use the cheapest available energy source? In case of a landfill, there probably is a city nearby which would benefit from cheap electricity. Perhaps miners have an advantage over a city in that they can move or disable mining rigs in times when renewables are scarce. But from what I understand Asics are expensive, and running them is big business. Which probably means they will continue running while it is financially feasible, even when a nearby dam runs dry or there is not enough wind or solar to go about.
      - 4y ago

smoldesu 4y ago

Ironically, the past month has been much worse for Ethereum than Bitcoin, price-wise.

WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
Ethereum has a pricing problem. How do you price an infinite asset that's cheap to produce? Previously you could peg it to the cost of production. Now its price will be directly influenced by how much it earns. I suspect that as time passes its price will go down reflecting what it costs to produce. It's good for the currency and apps that are created around it but I suspect it will be bad as an asset investment. It has a bright future but the price appreciation of Ether by speculation is over.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  An infinitely deflationary currency will be hard to popularize as anything other than a fiat. With the regulation around custodial Ethereum, I doubt the whole "dApp" ecosystem is going to go anywhere beyond where it stalled-out circa-2017.

kevinak 4y ago

No Bitcoin does not need to change its power consumption ways. It literally incentivises the build out of renewable energy. It will fix itself in time.

woeh 4y ago
How does Bitcoin have literal incentives to build out renewable energy? I've heard the claim before, but I'm not following. Doesn't Bitcoin mining just incentivize generating energy in general - green or otherwise? As a counterpoint: A recent study from Cambridge [0] estimates most of Bitcoins energy consumption still to be from fossil fuels. [0] https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/insight/2022/a-deep-dive-into-bitcoin's-environmental-impact/ https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/insight/2022/a-deep-dive-into-bitc...
- adammarples 4y ago
  One thing that I could say is that bitcoin mining can happen anywhere while typically energy has to be transported to population hubs. I'm not sure I agree that this fact has incentivised much renewables building.
- kevinak 4y ago
  It incentivises using the cheapest energy which is renewable. Bitcoin could even be greenhouse negative - just stick a mine on top of every landfill around and you have a recipe to get rid of methane gas. Or on oil fields where they accidentally run into gas pockets. Looks to me like GHG emissions are going down this year, from that report. I would expect that to continue going forward as more miners are deployed on top of cheap electricity sources :)
  - woeh 4y ago
    Isn't every energy consumer incentivized to use the cheapest available energy source? In case of a landfill, there probably is a city nearby which would benefit from cheap electricity. Perhaps miners have an advantage over a city in that they can move or disable mining rigs in times when renewables are scarce. But from what I understand Asics are expensive, and running them is big business. Which probably means they will continue running while it is financially feasible, even when a nearby dam runs dry or there is not enough wind or solar to go about.
    - 4y ago