BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions of mining bitcoin

Re:BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions o... by engendered on Sunday February 15, 2015 @08:43AM (#9052578)

And so will AC systems in local banks.

You can essentially include the entirety of operations of the bank, and the lifestyle of the people employed by the bank. There are literally millions and millions of people throughout the world who do nothing more than manage and monitor a system that moves numbers around and deals with proxy derivatives like bills and coins.

Not that bitcoin is a panacea -- personally it seems completely untenable -- but if we want to talk waste, the current regime is extraordinarily wasteful.

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Re:BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions o... by ncza on Sunday February 15, 2015 @09:22AM (#9052656)

But how much (dare I say little?) of it would be unneeded if bitcoin succeeded?

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Re:BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions o... by tormeh on Sunday February 15, 2015 @09:43AM (#9052710)

It can't succeed. Cryptocurrencies might succeed, but not bitcoin. It's not even inflationary; it's a cross between a payment system and a pyramid scheme.

Its a bit pedantic, but please don't say bitcoin when you mean cryptocurrency, as bitcoin is a pretty bad one.

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Re:BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions o... by oafitupa on Sunday February 15, 2015 @12:12PM (#9053217)

> It's not even inflationary

And that's exactly the whole point, and is the very reason it's working.

> a pyramid scheme

Then every other successful investment is a pyramid scheme. Gold is a pyramid scheme! Storing food for catastrophes is a pyramid scheme! Paintings are a pyramid scheme!

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Re:BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions o... by ufo on Sunday February 15, 2015 @05:06PM (#9054345)

Not every investment has to be a pyramid scheme. If you are generating value or selling a product then you end up with more money than what your investors are putting in.

What makes bitcoin into kind of a pyramid scheme is that right now a big part of the reward for miners is the 25 bitcoin you get from mining a block. Only a very small fraction comes from the transaction fees. The only way to keep bitcoin stable is by having a constant supply of new users buying into bitcoin by acquiring those fresh bitcoins from the miners.

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Re:BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions o... by calinet6 on Sunday February 15, 2015 @11:09AM (#9052963)

Maybe a naïve question, but are there any good ones we should support instead?

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Re:BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions o... by the_mitsuhiko on Sunday February 15, 2015 @10:08AM (#9052771)

I don't see a world in which Bitcoin would safe even only a single person in the traditional banking world. Bitcoin can neither replace banks nor creditcards. It might replace the ACH.

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