Re:Should Ethereum be okay with enshrining more things in th...
by rkagerer on Saturday September 30, 2023 @11:55AM
(#37716674)
Without dropping too far down the rabbit hole of semantics, here's an example of a project which put "waste" byproducts to use which would otherwise be flared off by producers, and reportedly lowered CO2-equivalent emissions by as much as 63% compared with continued flaring:
https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2261931-bitcoin-miners-he...
Some will argue it becomes a crutch incentivizing oil to keep producing, but it's not like the plant was uneconomical or likely to close down before the recapture outfit came along.
TeraWulf is another interesting one - they plug directly into a nuclear plant and help smooth the demand curve off-peak (reactors can't quickly ramp up and down so the energy produced would otherwise go unused / unpaid for). Discussed in this article along with a few others:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/07/04/4-bit...
This is a myth.
Energy, in a useable-to-humans form, does not generally "go to waste". Harvesting any kind of energy requires resources (windmills, solar panels, gas turbines, heat pumps, ...), many of them non-renewable themselves, as well as labor, that could always be deployed elsewhere.