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That only works if it becomes part of the BTC protocol that you can only mine if the electricity comes from renewable, non-polluting sources. Otherwise, due to
by cryptoz 11y ago
That only works if it becomes part of the BTC protocol that you can only mine if the electricity comes from renewable, non-polluting sources. Otherwise, due to solar not being the cheapest, most accessible source of energy everywhere that people want to mine BTC, you'd have lots of people choosing to increase greenhouse gas emissions in order to fill their own pockets.
It would be interesting to see estimates of the cost of those greenhouse gasses, in terms of extinct species, effort to clean up the atmosphere, or other expensive/bad things that can happen when you claim that increasingly using energy in non-efficient ways is just fine. Are these costs higher or lower than the value of the money created?
Perhaps BTC is sustainable, but your argument certainly does not refute the article's claim - at least, until we've already solved our energy & pollution problems.
- chaostheory 11y agoIf bitcoin does become even more mainstream, given its energy requirements and the potential strain it may put on existing traditional infrastructures; will solar and other alternative power sources always be more expensive?
- lmm 11y agoThere's no economy of scale for solar - just more and more panels, in contrast to more traditional power sources where running one big boiler / set of turbines can be more efficient. So I think solar gets worse off as electricity demand increases.
- eru 11y agoThere's an economy of scale in producing solar panels. And there can be economies of scale in installing them.
- prostoalex 11y agoThere are some markets out there where solar prices turn negative http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-26/solar-as-fastest-growing-u-s-power-source-rivals-shale-boom http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-26/solar-as-f...