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Re:Cryptocurrency Mines Consume More Power Than Argentina–Bu... by lucb1e on Sunday May 02, 2021 @06:14AM (#27013856)
If you get a more efficient PSU, miners' energy bill will be lower, which means the hash rate will go up by the same amount because the profit is not affected by mining efficiency (transaction fees plus block reward) whereas the costs (hardware plus energy) just went down. It would do nothing towards improving the environmental situation.

The only way to get miners to stop buying hardware or stop spending energy on this, is to lower the reward, i.e. if we decrease the value of a Bitcoin (stop putting more money into it) or collectively decide that maybe PoW isn't such a good idea in the middle of a climate crisis and try to bundle (do fewer) transactions or even stop using this system altogether. We can also try increasing energy taxes to the equivalent of climate impact (something approaching the cost of atmospheric carbon capture, on the order of €1 per kg of CO2e[1], because that's what it takes to undo what they caused), but that would just push miners to use up the cheaper renewable energy and crowd out everyone else and also impact people that use energy as a modern life necessity rather than for fun and profit.

[1] https://www.climeworks.com/subscriptions

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Re:Cryptocurrency Mines Consume More Power Than Argentina–Bu... by iovrthoughtthis on Sunday May 02, 2021 @06:28AM (#27013927)
i mean, the name says it all.
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Re:Cryptocurrency Mines Consume More Power Than Argentina–Bu... by CraigJPerry on Sunday May 02, 2021 @06:45AM (#27013993)
UK based here, well insulated thousands of miles away from the frontiers of climate change civilisation impacts but even so…

1. https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/sourcing/shortage-of-uk-grown-oi...

2. People relocating from land which has failed to sustain a crop in another country

3. Increased frequency of flooding events reaching non-floodplain areas over the past 30 years https://www.jbatrust.org/how-we-help/publications-resources/...

4. A change in which crops are sustainable - farmers do need to adjust as climate changes, but it’s quite hard in practice because the surrounding industry in a given area expects particular crops, it’s economically not viable to step outside the norms in response to weather - chicken and egg situation really

5. Increased mortality, old or young are sensitive to temperature swings, the hottest 10 years on record have happened in the past 20 years in the uk. Deaths go up during heatwaves among the elderly and the young

Re:Cryptocurrency Mines Consume More Power Than Argentina–Bu... by hntroll888 on Sunday May 02, 2021 @06:59AM (#27014050)
Thank you for answering. I don't think that stuff amounts to a crisis. I might say that, at most, it amounts to challenges that we're better able to face than at any previous time.