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 x86x87 on Friday February 02, 2024 @04:04PM (#39234374)

i don't understand what the actual consumption has to do with anything. That power that is used in not free - consumers actually pay for it. Unless you are suggesting that we should have regulations around what we can use power on the whole point is moot.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by j-krieger on Friday February 02, 2024 @05:15PM (#39235177)

The actual point is about the inefficiency.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by x86x87 on Friday February 02, 2024 @07:58PM (#39236582)

do you want to be able to get electricity? you pay for it, you use it.

do you want someone to tell you how you are able to use that electricity?

what's next? clutching our pearl around gas guzzlers? forbidding people to eat meat? do we want a free market or not?

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by xigoi on Saturday February 03, 2024 @03:21AM (#39238481)

Sure, the miners pay for the electricity, but everyone pays the price of having more climate change.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by x86x87 on Saturday February 03, 2024 @11:54AM (#39242141)

What are the main causes of climate change? And who gets to decide what is an appropriate use of power vs a bad use of power?

If the power I use comes from renewables is that cool?

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by lolc on Saturday February 03, 2024 @03:27AM (#39238508)

Somehow I live in a different reality where my actions have consequences and I think about them. In that reality, free markets are just a tool. To be used when appropriate.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by x86x87 on Saturday February 03, 2024 @11:56AM (#39242174)

In the reality I live in money rules everything. I have goods I want to buy, I have money. I exchange money for goods. I am alergic to people that get on their high horses about what I am allowed to spend my money on.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by lolc on Saturday February 03, 2024 @06:03PM (#39245667)

Bitcoin doesn't fall in the category of goods though. It's a service. If it stops operating, any "coins" it had allocated are just bits in the wind.

Now you may say you should be free to spend money on the horrendous energy bill of those miners, so that they allocate some coins to you. If there were no externalities, I'd agree. But since there are, I will argue against doing it. And we won't bridge that divide here I guess.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by Gazoche on Saturday February 03, 2024 @05:15AM (#39239020)

Free markets only work up to a point. Once you start having hidden costs that don't enter the equation, like climate change or excessive consumer prices due to supply not catching up with demand, is when other control mechanisms are needed.

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by x86x87 on Saturday February 03, 2024 @11:51AM (#39242113)

That's fine.

If the proposal is to reexamine and change the way our society works in order to avoid the tragedy of the commons that's great.

If the proposal is to arbitrarily ban something we don't like or understand that's a problem.

How about the amount of power a datacenter uses? What about all this "AI" - the hardware used for training the models is very power hungry?

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Re:Over 2 percent of the US's electricity generation now goe... by MattRix on Sunday February 04, 2024 @02:55PM (#39253737)

Yes, sure, we can look at things on a case-by-case basis. It’s pretty easy to look at something like bitcoin and see that inefficiency is the purpose rather than the byproduct, and then make regulations about that.

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