Re:Crypto-currency craze 'hinders search for alien life'
by TeMPOraL on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @11:05AM
(#16376769)
Which is why cryptocurrencies won't convert into more energy-efficient schemes - after all, they see the exponential waste as feature - and we'll be stuck with this energetic disaster until some authority finally puts a stop to this charade.
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Re:Crypto-currency craze 'hinders search for alien life'
by clarkmoody on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @11:44AM
(#16377095)
"Some authority" will use violence to stop mining locally, and it will immediately move elsewhere.
This is a nearly pure market system, driven by economic incentives. Cryptocurrency mining is the best and highest use for the scarce resource of energy. Once it becomes unprofitable to mine, then the hash rate will stabilize and the energy will be used for better purposes. Marginal producers of hash rate will be priced out of the market.