Re:Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index
by gruez on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @09:19AM
(#26089428)
>1) Peak power usage is when people are awake - this is when you want transactions to happen.
Mining is global, so this isn't an issue. It might be peak period in europe right now (2PM UTC) but not in asia or western US.
>This wouldn't reduce the need of peak plants, since you aren't generating power when mining for bitcoin. How would increasing overall energy consumption require less energy generation?
This is a big unknown, because the economics depends entirely on the cost of electricity vs the cost of equipment. If electricity cost dominates, then it'd make sense to shut down mining operations during periods of peak usage (because electricity prices are higher), but if equipment costs dominate then it'd make sense to mine 24/7.
Mining is global, so this isn't an issue. It might be peak period in europe right now (2PM UTC) but not in asia or western US.
>This wouldn't reduce the need of peak plants, since you aren't generating power when mining for bitcoin. How would increasing overall energy consumption require less energy generation?
This is a big unknown, because the economics depends entirely on the cost of electricity vs the cost of equipment. If electricity cost dominates, then it'd make sense to shut down mining operations during periods of peak usage (because electricity prices are higher), but if equipment costs dominate then it'd make sense to mine 24/7.