Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goes to Bitcoin

Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by everfree on Friday February 02, 2024 @02:58PM (#39233414)

Interestingly whenever this kind of thing comes up, I also hear cryptocurrency critics use the energy argument to deride blockchains in general.

They don't seem to understand that Bitcoin alone accounts for 98% of all cryptocurrency energy usage due to its uniquely energy-intensive algorithm. Hypothetically if Bitcoin were shut down, crypto would be as energy-efficient as any other distributed/federated technology.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by randomNumber7 on Friday February 02, 2024 @03:57PM (#39234270)

It burns the energy as a proof, its not just doing it because its badly designed.

The reason most money goes into bitcoin is probably, that people consider it safer than proof of stake.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by everfree on Friday February 02, 2024 @04:07PM (#39234415)

Let's not kid ourselves, bitcoin's dominance is due to network effect. Nobody understands blockchains.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by randomNumber7 on Friday February 02, 2024 @04:22PM (#39234598)

The original bitcoin paper is an easy read.

How proof of stakes is fire proof is harder to understand, and the information I found did not 100% convince me (not an expert in cryptography so doesnt mean much)

I never put money into crypto btw. Its just gambling right now imo.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by woodruffw on Friday February 02, 2024 @03:06PM (#39233537)

It's hard to imagine that the market for PoS coins would be nearly as large as it currently is without the 800 pound gorilla that is Bitcoin.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by everfree on Friday February 02, 2024 @03:23PM (#39233782)

You're right. With that in mind, if Bitcoin were hypothetically shut down, the rest would probably use even less energy.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by woodruffw on Friday February 02, 2024 @03:31PM (#39233911)

Indeed!

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by Spivak on Friday February 02, 2024 @03:23PM (#39233784)

I mean ETH is pretty darn popular.

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