Topic: Estimating the energy/power consumption of the Bitcoin Network - page 3. (Read 6887 times)

All energy sources have their benefits and drawbacks, just like everything else in nature. Your solution is interesting. I would prefer geothermal in Siberia or Iceland.

The cheapest energy is what?  Coal? 

Heck, I want to invest in relocating a large bc mining operation to the Alaska north slope to facilitate cooling, right next to a large coal fired power plant! 

Heck, I will even supply a free coffee barista 24/7 for all employees!

How so? (sounds good not sure I quite get it.)

Bitcoin = Digital Energy

This is my conclusion, people call PoW wasteful, but it will force us to value energy through a different economic lens and in turn make us truly environmentally efficient, and then with each halving Bitcoin will give back lots of energy if it is inefficiency used.

So I just had a thought given the impending cost of production, network growth and price junction and I was wondering if all this data could be used to make a more accurate price prediction models.

Is there a graph of Bitcoin mining energy efficiency (CPU to GPU's to ASIC's and there relative incremental improvements) over time?

From the above you can plot the energy consumption of the Bitcoin network over time by referencing the hash history.

I'd really be interested to see those graphs could be model relative to price say relative to Stephen Reed's Million Dollar Logistic Model

In conjunction with the Bitcoin inflation rate. (Price eras - halving)

If the ultimate goal is the adoption and proliferation of BTC as a currency, then it needs to be treated like one in some regards. Ghetto colo or circus colo while OK when no one cared or was watching is one thing. To bridge the chasm between BTC as a Ponzi scheme, fad, or other such connotation it will take appearing like that which people think of. Do you want your fiat currency in a secured place like a bank or garage in a ghetto?

As it relates to power, there are a number of Utilities that have been around for over 100 years who are investing in real infrastructure using real money (BTC or fiat) that needs to be paid for over time. If a utility has to spend $25M to deliver 100MW and a miner only wants a 5 month contract, good luck. The banks and financiers that underwrite these deals buy risk. Short term contracts that back a $25M spend means there is less time for the bank or lending entity to make money back. So for a $25M nut, the bank will expect a 10% return so the tab is $27.5M that needs to be paid back in 5 months or at least the replacement value needs to be recouped in the 5 months.  Few utilities will take on that much risk for a 20 year contract with unknown entities that set up facilities that are lawsuits and fires waiting to happen. They see it as never getting paid pack.

 

That's a great answer! 

When seriously considering the future of the Bitcoin network, what you need to ask is "Does my utility bill get cheaper every year?", "Will operating costs consistently match the value of mined bitcoin?",  "How long will it take for BTC value to recover when the block chain discovery gets halved again?" & "Can the network really handle millions of Transactions Per Second after all of the commercial miners are gone?"

I have been in the data center business for 20 years and there is another way to look at this as a business...

The power costs what the power costs where you are
The real estate costs what the real estate costs where you locate
Labor costs what the labor costs where you locate
Taxes cost what taxes cost where you locate
The infrastructure costs what the infrastructure costs where you locate - rigs, racks, cables, switches, routers

The question is how can you make money where you are? Can you?

There is consumption and there is cost of consumption. The way the data center world computes power is cost of power (.05)*hours per month (730)* Kw used (1000)= $36,500 per month in power to run a 1MW footprint of rigs or 416 rigs at 2.4Kw of draw each.

There are collateral costs for the cooling required to cool the density of the rigs - remember computers turn electricity into heat - and that adds a factor of .3 to .5 depending on the facility. This means that for every Kw of power used to run a rig, you'll need to consume .3 or .5 of a Kw to power the cooling infrastructure required to keep the wires and boards from burning or melting and to keep the rigs at an operating temperature range.

So the all in cost per MW of power will be $37,595 per month at a .3 cooling uplift. You still have the cost of rigs, racks, cables, switches, etc. to cover and rent for the physical space which on the low end would be $90/kw so figure another $90,000 plus taxes.

So the question is at what scale do you mine bitcoin to clear at least $150K/month?

How will bitcoin incentivize higher efficiency electronic development and unicorns? I think generally speaking many think bitcoin mining is quite dirty.

You forgot unicorns.

Bitcoin will incentivize clean, renewable energy development. Bitcoin will incentivize higher efficiency electronic development. It will create jobs, clean the environment, and save all the babies, puppies, and rainbows!

That depends on the parameters you enter into the equation.

it need a energy of a nuclear power station or more