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I was trying to find stats on the energy/environmental impact involved in producing a single penny. What I did find was that at times a penny costs nearly doubl

by gdubs 14y ago

I was trying to find stats on the energy/environmental impact involved in producing a single penny. What I did find was that at times a penny costs nearly double its worth to produce [1]. 1:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(United_States_coin)#Metal_content_and_manufacturing_costs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(United_States_coin)#Meta...

alanctgardner2 14y ago
A penny isn't really a fair comparison: - many countries have eliminated pennies - mining will have to continue even after "coins" aren't produced, to verify transactions. It's more apt to measure power per transaction, against a traditional bank (or a handful of cash, amortized over it's life.) There was a good explain xkcd about the cost of carrying around physical money in your car.
- wwwtyro 14y ago
  > mining will have to continue even after "coins" aren't produced, to verify transactions. That doesn't sound right - do you have a reference for that?
  - wmf 14y ago
    All Bitcoin documentation ever. The purpose of mining is actually not to generate BTC; the purpose is to prevent double spending and the block reward is just an incentive.
    - wwwtyro 14y ago
      I should have RTFM before making that knee-jerk comment. Thank you for the swift kick.
samolang 14y ago
And it costs more than 11 cents to produce a nickel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_(United_States_coin) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_(United_States_coin).
- salgernon 14y ago
  And if a nickel could only be spent once, this would matter.
  - samolang 14y ago
    It matters to me since my taxes are paying for its production. I would prefer to have both the penny and nickel discontinued.