Re:Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index
by monopoledance on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @12:39PM
(#26092276)
> Though there is also another factor which limits mining
That's what I meant when I wrote, mining may be limited by another resource limit. I dread a future, where technological progression is halted or slowed, because people need to dig into landfills searching for rare elements bound to overproduced electronics.
Look at all the compute thrown at heat generation instead of solving protein folding problems for all of humanity. What could be done with terawatts of electrical energy?
I think prolonging the usage of Bitcoin isn't stupid, but downright offensive. Your freedom ends, where my future begins.
Though there is also another factor which limits mining: the availability of hardware. This cost is not negligible in mining profits, and in fact is one of the reasons the idea of miners using excess green power is a myth: mining hardware generally needs to be run close 100% of the time to make a profit.