News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goes to Bitcoin. Parent comment

Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by ruined on Friday February 02, 2024 @03:17PM (#39233707)
and this is where it comes to a point: what can you possibly change about the world to deincentivize that, and make it uninteresting?

if you want a transition away from carbon, you have to solve that question.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by p1mrx on Friday February 02, 2024 @03:50PM (#39234177)
> what can you possibly change about the world to deincentivize that

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_fee_and_dividend

This would remove the incentive to mine crypto on any grid that is coincidentally emitting carbon.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by ephbit on Sunday February 04, 2024 @05:01AM (#39248949)
The carbon fee would lower and possibly sometimes completely remove the incentive to mine Bitcoin on a grid that is coincidentally emitting CO2, when the current electricity generation mix has a large share of fossil generation.

As most (if not all) uses of electricity, Bitcoin mining is sensitive to the electricity price. Introducing a a carbon tax / carbon dividend, doesn't magically make any particular use of electricity economically unviable all of the time. It just pushes the cost equilibria to different values.

[ Parent | on HN ]