Re:Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index
by monopoledance on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @10:39AM
(#26090582)
I am not up to date with the latest developments. Is POW, as in blowing away heat, fundamental to all coins? Is there such a thing as "Proof of Service", or "Proof of Meaningful Work"? Tho, I assume everything can be exploited by twisting it into meaningless, but more competitive "work", coming down to just generating heat...
Crypto is cool in a theoretical sense but ugly in practical sense.
I mined a bit of BTC in 2011 and LTC in 2013 but when my colleagues started buying ASICs in 2017 boom I could not in good faith join them because of energy concerns. (incidentally buying ASICs is a losing proposition unless you get early access)
The problem is that if BTC goes to say 500k the incentives for power (ab)use get even more perverse.
POW is just like Adtech and HFT. Some Adtech and some HFT might be okay but at some point it becomes an arms race no one can win.