I'd actually be more interested in seeing how big of a part green energy is of those statistics...
I'd imagine it could be a lot cheaper to generate your own power with either solar or wind, especially for large-scale mining operations.
What's the problem with Bitcoin mining taking up so much power? Would this be an issue if the missing capacity was filled with additional renewable energy?
I really think that in some point in the future, we're really not going to be worrying about power anymore. Once we transition to highly efficient and environmentally-friendly renewables, power consumption might not even be an issue anymore. We're still pretty far off from that, but I do think we'll get there eventually. (If we don't destroy our planet first)
Topic: Bitcoin to use 0.5% of world’s electricity by end of 2018 - page 4. (Read 571 times)
With mining facilities looking to be more and more electrically efficient with the coming years, I feel they will be pushing our electrical technology to tiers that will help us on a global scale.
I don't think mining facilities are necessarily striving for power usage efficiency, but they're certainly trying to find power cost efficiency. There's a very big difference between the two. Mining operations need the electricity, they don't care how much they're using to keep their mining machines going, they just want it to be low cost. And finding renewable energy sources isn't always available or cost effective.
It would be great if some of these mining operations sought to improve energy usage efficiency because those trial-and-error learnings could benefit the entire world.
the mining is getting busier as there's only 4mil coins left, right?
Mining is getting busier because Bitcoin is at $8,000 each. It's the revenue that can be earned that's driving the work. It'll take more than 100 years to mine the remaining 4 million coins.
the mining is getting busier as there's only 4mil coins left, right?
Quote
The estimates, based in economics, put the minimum current usage of the bitcoin network at 2.55 gigawatts, which means it uses almost as much electricity as Ireland. A single transaction uses as much electricity as an average household in the Netherlands uses in a month. By the end of this year, he predicts the network could be using as much as 7.7 gigawatts—as much as Austria and 0.5% of the world’s total consumption.
https://www.livemint.com/Money/3wU3b1IuMYZTl47zYkkcmN/Bitcoin-to-use-05-of-worlds-electricity-by-end-of-2018.html
With mining facilities looking to be more and more electrically efficient with the coming years, I feel they will be pushing our electrical technology to tiers that will help us on a global scale.
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