News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Bitcoin has computed 2^83.9 hashes by XorNot on Tuesday January 26, 2016 @05:00PM (#10976476)
1 trillion is the current GDP of Australia, a modest szed industrial nation. 1% of energy consumption for just that much currency is not an all worth it.
Re:Bitcoin has computed 2^83.9 hashes by mrb on Tuesday January 26, 2016 @07:01PM (#10977231)
Australia consumes 5831 petajoules [1] or 1620 terawatt-hours yearly. In my model miners would consume a comparable amount (actually less): 800 terawatt-hours. Therefore Bitcoin and the Australian economy extract comparable economic value from energy.

IOW if you think Bitcoin is not worth it, then Australia is not worth it :) Thanks for this interesting comparison!

[1] http://www.industry.gov.au/Office-of-the-Chief-Economist/Pub...

Re:Bitcoin has computed 2^83.9 hashes by XorNot on Wednesday January 27, 2016 @06:37AM (#10979517)
Australia keeps 25 million people alive in a first-world lifestyle. Bitcoin keeps computers warm.
Re:Bitcoin has computed 2^83.9 hashes by mrb on Wednesday January 27, 2016 @11:45AM (#10981052)
No, Bitcoin creates more than just heat: it created thousands of jobs (see section "Bitcoin already benefits the economy" in http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=82).