Topic: Bitcoin and global warming - page 10. (Read 3051 times)

Yes i also cannot see any effect of BTC on global warming, there are a lot of other ways which are responsible for global warming and if it will not be control the situation will get more serious, but anyhow bitcoin or any other altcoin is not responsible for global warming, mining tool are contributing negligible amount of global warming.

I don't think the environmental problems associated with bitcoin mining are serious, and people overstate it.
With many more serious industrial pollution causing global warming, don't blame bitcoin too much.

If energy isn't used by Bitcoin it will be used by something else. The whole economy is based on infinite growth, so it'd be extremely altruistic to reduce energy consumption for the greater good. What's really needed is clean energy research.

I think our main problem is the huge electricity expense induced by mining and its noxious effect on the climate. This is, to my mind, the only serious argument against Bitcoin.
Alleviating the electricity expense should be one of our priorities. If we do not do it for the sake of the Earth (which we really should) we should at least do it selfishly because governments will not tolerate this forever and they will be right. The more the exchange rate increases, the worse it gets, of course.
Some solutions exist though: first there is proof-of-stake, of course. This technology may be too young to be deemed reliable enough but we should at least start considering it.
If we do not like proof-of-stake I think we could drammatically decrease the electricity expense by stopping monetary creation now. Nowdays Bitcoin is famous enough to remain secure even if miners earned transaction fees only. And if as a whole there are 16.5 M coins instead of 21 M, this does not make much of a difference. That is even good for holders. To make miners agree with that solution, they must be compensated for their lost income.  More precisely, active miners must be compensated because they have already bought ASICs. Futures miners do not need to be compensated. Since mining is a competitive industry, future miners will make no profit on average, whatever the reward scheme. To compensate active miners we could decide that the next 2016 blocks yield, say, 100 new coins and then 0 forever. Everybody would win and the Earth above all!
There are probably many other solutions and I wish the community cared a little more about this fundamental issue.

The carbon dioxide pollution caused by BTC mining is almost negligible compared with the traditional industrial carbon dioxide production!
Compared to the exploitation of oil, gold mining, BTC mining is very environmentally friendly!

The carbon dioxide pollution caused by BTC mining is almost negligible compared with the traditional industrial carbon dioxide production!
Compared to the exploitation of oil, gold mining, BTC mining is very environmentally friendly!

The whole global economy is based on mining and burning energy resources that have been stored within the earth for millions of years. Bitcoin is based on the one reliable thing in life: greed. It is foolish to expect people not taking the shortest (-sighted) route to monetary wealth. That is why I am suspicious about crypto energy projects.

By definition and design Bitcoin cannot experience hyperinflation.  So, you must be talking about hyperinflation of a country's government or central bank issued fiat currency as people dump that crap for something better.  You cannot blame the hyperinflation of an unstable government run fiat currency on Bitcoin.  The fault would land squarely on the fiat currency or more specifically the government or central bank mismanagement and misuse of said currency.

A long time ago I derived a formula to estimate the amount of energy the miners will attempt to use based on the assumption that, on average, the mining sector will burn as much energy as they can afford to burn:

P = (6(50/2^e) + f)(x)(1 - g)/c [kW]

where:

x = exchange rate [USD/BTC]
e = era [0..32] (we are currently in era 2)
f = average fees per hour [BTC/hour]
c = cost of energy [USD/kWh]
g = average gross profit margin [unitless ratio]

Here is a quick stab at the numbers.  If you think you have more accurate numbers put them in the formula and see what you get.

x = $8,800 per BTC
f = 6 x 1.25 = 7.5 BTC/hour
c = $0.10 per kWh
g = 0.1 miner gross profit margin

P = (6(50/2²) + 7.5)(8800)(1-0.1)/0.1
   = (6(12.5) + 7.5)(8800)(0.9)/0.1
   = (82.5)(8800)(0.9)/0.1
   = 6,534,000 kW
   = 6.534 GW

So at $8,800 per BTC the mining sector will attempt to burn about 6 GW.  They may not get there due to shortages of miners, build out delays, etc. but they will try.

You could say it about everything.

Gold mining is causing global warming and is harming environment.
Money printing is causing global warming and is making rain forest to disappear.

...


We would have to go back on the trees.. .