How many Bitcoins does it cost to maintain the Bitcoin network?

Re:How many Bitcoins does it cost to maintain the Bitcoin ne... by nazgulnarsil on Friday August 29, 2014 @04:02PM (#8244266)

The guy doesn't grasp the basic premise of PoW schemes. Yes, it costs close to a Bitcoin to make a Bitcoin. That Bitcoin, once created, is a REUSABLE PROOF OF WORK.

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Re:How many Bitcoins does it cost to maintain the Bitcoin ne... by api on Friday August 29, 2014 @04:20PM (#8244337)

The real question is: how much does it really cost to clear a transaction? And how much of that cost is being hidden via being subsidized through a speculative mining frenzy? What happens to real-world TX costs when mining isn't a hot thing anymore?

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Re:How many Bitcoins does it cost to maintain the Bitcoin ne... by icebraining on Friday August 29, 2014 @04:34PM (#8244398)

The real question is: how much does it really cost to clear a transaction?

Anywhere from a fraction of a cent to millions of dollars. Bitcoin transactions don't have a fixed cost, it depends on how many people are mining. More miners => increased difficult => higher costs.

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Re:How many Bitcoins does it cost to maintain the Bitcoin ne... by gfody on Friday August 29, 2014 @04:44PM (#8244421)

There is an intrinsic cost associated with hashing and rehashing the blockchain to secure the transaction. In terms of cpu time, electricity, etc.

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Re:How many Bitcoins does it cost to maintain the Bitcoin ne... by icebraining on Friday August 29, 2014 @05:10PM (#8244521)

Yes, but if there were no more miners, you could process all transactions on a single cheap laptop, which probably costs less than $1/day to run.

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Re:How many Bitcoins does it cost to maintain the Bitcoin ne... by akira2501 on Friday August 29, 2014 @05:03PM (#8244498)

So, what happens when they hit 21m bitcoin and mining no longer offers a reward?

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Re:How many Bitcoins does it cost to maintain the Bitcoin ne... by wmf on Friday August 29, 2014 @06:03PM (#8244720)

Everybody sells their now-worthless miners for scrap and the difficulty falls to a reasonable level.

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Re:How many Bitcoins does it cost to maintain the Bitcoin ne... by wmf on Friday August 29, 2014 @04:59PM (#8244481)

how much does it really cost to clear a transaction?

One way to look at that is (25 BTC / block) / (# of transactions / block). About 60 mBTC/transaction given https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions-per-block

Fortunately the transaction itself does not have to pay for its own processing.

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