Topic: Bitcoin as a Driver for Free Energy (Read 1041 times)

So far the only one who could do something like you are describing is satoshi nakamoto, obviously. He (or the team) needs to crack that nut next for sure.

All right, that's a good point. Keep the free energy tech out of the hands of those who would use it to start WWIII.

Maybe only very secretive technologists could pull this off then. Staying in the shadows with what they know, they could create their own free energy-powered miners and vanish from the grid completely. One can dream

People used to fight all the time, and oil was never an issue. Land was the main issue.  Many wars stopped because the resource to commit to them for years cost more and more and made them unsustainable.

Now imagine a world were it would have been pointless to cut the nazi's oil supply to keep their fighter planes on the ground... Infinite energy would have kept them flying forever.

Don't get me wrong. I love the idea of free energy. We need to find a solution for bitcoin, etc. One just need to always think about the worse that could happen in a "what if" scenario, which is the case you've presented.

 

If most wars are over resources like oil then free energy would definitely change the incentives. Also, neither free energy or Bitcoin alone will lead to a global decentralized civil society. People also have to be sophisticated enough themselves to be able to function in such a way.

Yes. I agree totally. Lots of waste of energy. Let's see if the big boys can do something about it first, if they care to...

But for this paradigm shift to take place now, you would need two things: a quantum leap in tech and a global event. A catastrophic global event. Free energy from thin air everywhere will not solve poverty, to the contrary. It could put poverty up side down in the world at first. If I have infinite energy why would I want to trade anything with you? If I have free energy but I have nothing to eat as I was born in a place with a very poor ground, where nothing grows, how can I still trade something with you when you have free energy and an amazing rich soil where anything grows? No need to wait for that oil from the saudis if I am the one who's blessed with this heaven on earth, but the saudis can't eat their desert...

Free energy will not eliminate disparities nor wars...

When u put it that way it makes sense, but those devices will continue to exist regardless of bitcoin or any other alternative payment processor.
Actually bank ATM machines would be replaced with bitcoin ATM-s , so there is no progress there.

All i am saying is that bitcoin needs to get better power/hash ratio, and lower total consumption massively before it can be called energy saving technology.
But in the end , that's only my opinion.

cheers

There's no such thing as free energy. If someone invents a machine that creates energy from the static in the air (assuming this is even possible and viable), he has created a machine with value. Why would he give it away for free? He would either sell the machine or more likely license the technology or sell the power. Similarly, the sun blankets us with "free energy" but unless you can manufacture solar panels, you're going to need to buy them from someone who can. And those people are going to sell the panels to you or sign you to a PPA (power purchase agreement) to provide you with the energy for a price, not give it to you for free. So there will never be free energy, because energy has value, and the people who can produce it or the means to harness it will never be interested in giving it away for free, because that makes no economic sense at all.

I agree. It's important to do what you can to advance goals like this, in my opinion. Lest we sit around like yokels, ivory tower academics, or lazy rich people.

Free energy is supposed to take electricity from static in the air. So how much of it getting consumed by the network afterwards probably won't be a concern like it is with burning oil or coal.

I understand that free energy won't be available to the masses if money can't be made with it. But I think that miners would have an interest in tracking down some devices and this would put market pressure on such devices being produced afterwards.

No new technical advances have probably occurred as a result of Bitcoin. Chip technology deployed is likely nothing new, nor are distributed computing concepts. The ways cryptography is used are new, but encryption algorithms themselves are probably not new. All of this is probably a good thing. It shows the empahsis that is being put on solving real-world societal problems. Bitcoin is not some university pet project by a longshot.

Network power consumption, compared to facebook's, google's, apple's, the pentagon's, and all the ATM machines around the globe being used 24/7? How about those millions of tons of soil being moved everyday for rare earth elements for smartphones, then shipped into containers around a global physical network?

Insane indeed.

I see your point, but the bitcoin itself is insane dump on energy resourses (@ time of writing Network power consumption
2513.31 MW) , and as such its hardly driver for free energy.
Wouldn't some POS coin be more optimal choice?

We are but a few years away from what the light bulb did to the candle and oil. We haven't cracked that puzzle yet, but it will be cracked eventually. Then this (almost free) energy will impact everyone, everywhere, including bitcoin. Computer systems with built in bitcoin mining hardware will be common place by then.

As far as what you are describing, we are still here. Not light bulb yet.

Well, as miners are paid more and more and use more electricity it could get to the point where infrastructure is created to pay for mining and our daily electricity will just be an overflow of what they're not using. Whole communities that have major mining farms could get cheap electricity from the remaining output.

Maybe the security (cryptography) , and also the lowest fee ( but this is not an innovation, it is only a comfort).

Free energy wont happen as long as people can make money on electricity. Also do you not see the catch 22 heere? In order to make Bitcoins you need electricity (yeah there are solar panels but how many use it?).

Can you name some of the technical innovations that BTC has made, if we look away from decentralizing part?

Hi Bitcointalk,

The following is an article I wrote that argues how free energy devices might be developed more quickly now thanks to Bitcoin. I'm hoping to forward these ideas in some way. I hope it's a shared interest in this community as well. I appreciate any tips and comments!

-BM

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Bitcoin has become a driver for many financial and technical innovations. From being able to send funds with a cents-on-the-dollar fee, to being able to run a headless international payments system. A possibility I think that is overlooked is its additional ability to drive innovation in the free energy space.

Free energy was a concept hypothesized and successfully carried out in practice by 20th century physicist Nikola Tesla, and other since. Free energy is the ability to extract usable electricity from static in the air. Many inventors have worked with the free energy concept and have developed prototypes. Few if any prototypes make it to market however due to the entrenched nature of the petroleum, coal, and centrally-controlled and metered power utility companies. Free energy, being a radically decentralized form of procuring usable electricity, goes strongly against their business model. Stories from around the internet can be found where inventors are bullied or killed by those who have stake in the centrally-controlled electricity infrastructure model in order to keep their prototypes from being developed for the wider market.

I would argue that Bitcoin, in its architecture which rewards computing power being added to the network, would also by extension reward and provide incentive for the further development and deployment of free energy technologies.

A gripe among Bitcoin enthusiasts is that profitability becomes difficult to achieve when faced with fixed, and in some cases, steep electricity costs. Costs imposed on these Bitcoin network operators (“miners”) are a result of the centrally-controlled electricity infrastructure. The centrally-controlled electricity infrastructure, in most cases run by state agencies, are filled with slack and theft, as are probably most state-run agencies. These slack and theft costs in turn result in a higher price for electricity that would be above its true cost by some margin. As an aside, one can speculate that the true costs of electricity are too high as well – given that it is now the 21st century but free energy concepts have been demonstrated early in the 20th century.

Bitcoin network operators / miners will continue to seek alternative ways to increase their profitability, like all rational actors. Unlike ordinary consumers of electricity, whose business or personal endeavors lie somewhat more abstracted from the cost of electricity, to Bitcoin miners the cost of electricity is of prime concern. Any way to increase power output per dollar spent grants a large competitive advantage. So for this group an alternative electricity solution would be particularly appealing – more so than to the average home or business owner.

I argue that with Bitcoin miners seeking to increase their power output per dollar spent more than other actors in the economy that this will drive for more rapid development and adoption of free energy technologies. Where other actors historically have blocked free energy tech. from emerging, or have been largely indifferent, the incentives guiding Bitcoin mining will lead to free energy emerging sooner than if Bitcoin did not exist. For the first individual or group that can secure and deploy mining hardware with a fraction or none of the electricity costs normally associated, this person or group will make profits that will blow the other miners out of the water completely. For the reclusive inventor sitting on some piece of tech., the entrepreneurial Bitcoin miner seeking to MASSIVELY blow out their profits, would want to meet, shake hands, and tactfully develop something. To put it bluntly, reliably usable free energy tech. is the next big nut for Bitcoin to crack, and once it does, it may feel like the world rapidly leaps to a stage in development that has been decades overdue.

The wider impact that will result is difficult to fathom. It would have the potential to rapidly stabilize debt levels in the developed world. Pulling this off would ensure that the developed world could continue forth without having to rely on immigration, on exporting its institutions to less developed cultures that may not yet be ready to assimilate them, or on old-world pillage-and-plunder-of-resource tactics through military aggression.

I hope this essay inspires and reaches the right people.

If you enjoyed reading please tip me at 152DrxMzxQnzsLRzKWgS61foSfTZ3kygvR. I think about this stuff a lot and could always use the extra coins