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Topic: Ethic & Sustainable Mining (Read 420 times)

legendary
Activity: 3710
Merit: 1170
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March 22, 2019, 01:33:30 PM
#32
Why would they need to build an ethic and sustainable operation if what they are doing is not illegal in anyway ?
I mean there are so many more business all around the world that causes more damage and yet they are legal so they just pay their taxes.

Look at tobacco companies, they are LITERALLY killing people, I am not even joking, we are talking about a tobacco product that kills more people than guns and yet they are so free you can buy them anywhere you want.

I have no idea how are they even so popular and allowed, weed is literally harmless compared to tobacco but fairly illegal in most of the world. Miners need to do nothing, they continue doing what they are doing and if anyone wants to stop them they should first look at all the other ethical stuff in the world before they go down the list to miners.
legendary
Activity: 3528
Merit: 7005
Top Crypto Casino
March 22, 2019, 09:57:21 AM
#31
Although BTC runs the safest blockchain, it's the most polluting one.
Wouldn't it be much better if people weren't mining all of these garbage coins that will never get used for anything other than selling to the next sucker?  I think if any coin deserves to get mined, it's bitcoin just based on its utility alone.  And though I haven't read much about the environmental impact of mining it (but it's definitely interesting to me), I can't see how it's the "most polluting one".  Is that simply because it has the most miners?

Wasn't there a bunch of Chinese miners using hydroelectric power for their mining operation?  I think I recall seeing a picture of a huge warehouse-type place near some waterfall a couple of years ago.  That seems like an ideal way to get the electricity needed to mine.  Not sure if other, cleaner power sources can generate enough wattage to power a huge mining farm like the one I think I saw, but I imagine that that's where miners will end up.  It also seems like it would be far more profitable for them to use power generated off-grid.
member
Activity: 980
Merit: 62
March 22, 2019, 09:49:02 AM
#30
Critics overwhelm the Crypto Mining Industry on POW blockchains. Although BTC runs the safest blockchain, it's the most polluting one.
Mining companies can make Thousands if not millions of dollars with almost no employees.
Mining companies can provoke problems in their communities due to the amount of energy usage.

How can we make Mining Operations more sustainable?

Redirecting part of profits towards the problem they cause? Eg: Sustain or fund environmental impact businesses.
Going 100% solar/renewable energy?

How can all the critics be countered? How can we create an ethical mining sector?

It is just a marketing technique to spread FUD in the crypto community.
You know the cryptocurrency industry is not polluting the environment as cars/factories do. There are so many other entities that absorb more power and pollute the environment compared to mining farms.

Don't be naive and adopt the opinion that mining is not environmentally friendly. A mining farm and be supported 100% from solar/renewable energy.
hero member
Activity: 3164
Merit: 937
March 22, 2019, 12:03:50 AM
#29
Critics overwhelm the Crypto Mining Industry on POW blockchains. Although BTC runs the safest blockchain, it's the most polluting one.
Mining companies can make Thousands if not millions of dollars with almost no employees.
Mining companies can provoke problems in their communities due to the amount of energy usage.

How can we make Mining Operations more sustainable?

Redirecting part of profits towards the problem they cause? Eg: Sustain or fund environmental impact businesses.
Going 100% solar/renewable energy?

How can all the critics be countered? How can we create an ethical mining sector?

Millions of dollars with almost no employess?Really?I don't believe this.The more mining equipment you have the more people your need for maintenance and security.
Going 100% renewable energy is not doable in the next 10 years,green energy is still very expensive.
We have to deal wit hthe fact that mining will become even more centralized and executed by only a handful of major corporations.
legendary
Activity: 1596
Merit: 1034
March 21, 2019, 01:02:53 PM
#28
Do not ignore their criticism because I believe the criticism indicates that they only envy miners who make a lot of money without having to have many employees. Energy problems are just as an excuse to bring you down to stop mining. As long as you are sure that the mining that you do does not damage the environment, then continue the mining process because there are many other ways to be able to get environmentally friendly energy.
legendary
Activity: 3542
Merit: 1965
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March 21, 2019, 01:28:53 AM
#27
You are not looking at the bigger picture here. Even though most mining farms only operate with a few individuals, it also creates indirect job opportunities for people in their supply chain. They need specific hardware and resources like, steel racks & air conditioning, electricians and hiring accommodation and plots of land close to their power source.

They also use bandwidth from the local internet provider and they buy food and produce from the local markets and shops. Also, someone must be employed to manufacture the ASIC chips that are used by these mining farms.  Tongue 
member
Activity: 546
Merit: 10
March 21, 2019, 01:12:58 AM
#26
Many projects are switching to POS loot. Like for example ETH. It eats up resources on mining much less.
full member
Activity: 504
Merit: 100
March 20, 2019, 11:33:21 PM
#25
it's hard to explain to be able to mine ethically, and truly renewable energy "solar energy" can be the best choice, and besides that I think crypto mining is very risky, electromagnetic waves generated by electrical energy can attack body health, and according to the news Wi-Fi signal media can cause brain cancer.

so all of these risks must be ready to be accepted to the crypto miners,
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1483
February 25, 2019, 12:47:58 AM
#24
I don't think that mining necessarily will create a "problem".

What will create a problem is if the energy is not sustainably sourced, and I think that is totally out of the control of bitcoin miners.

i wouldn't say that. this all boils down to profit motive. if the mining profit motive drives unsustainable energy use (like coal fired generation), that is not "out of the control of bitcoin miners". the bitcoin miners don't give a shit about sustainable energy. they only care about profit. that's the fundamental problem that we as society need to fix.

this is why sensible power plant operators (who need to balance their grid loads) and governments who are serious about sustainable energy need to incentivize bitcoin miners to make the right decision. we need to drive bitcoin miners where there is excess electricity supply. hydro power during rainy season that must be consumed and other things like that.

if you just leave bitcoin miners up to their own devices, they will just opt for the cheapest energy. if that's fossil fuel, of course they'll use it.

Furthermore, IIRC a lot of bitcoin mining really just uses up excess electricity that would otherwise have went down the drain anyways.

that's the ideal but i'm really not sure that's what is actually happening. very few policy makers have actually created economic incentives for this activity.
hero member
Activity: 1666
Merit: 753
February 24, 2019, 03:59:16 PM
#23
Critics overwhelm the Crypto Mining Industry on POW blockchains. Although BTC runs the safest blockchain, it's the most polluting one.
Mining companies can make Thousands if not millions of dollars with almost no employees.
Mining companies can provoke problems in their communities due to the amount of energy usage.

How can we make Mining Operations more sustainable?

Redirecting part of profits towards the problem they cause? Eg: Sustain or fund environmental impact businesses.
Going 100% solar/renewable energy?

How can all the critics be countered? How can we create an ethical mining sector?

I don't think that mining necessarily will create a "problem".

What will create a problem is if the energy is not sustainably sourced, and I think that is totally out of the control of bitcoin miners. Furthermore, IIRC a lot of bitcoin mining really just uses up excess electricity that would otherwise have went down the drain anyways. If bitcoin mining uses excess energy, and energy that is sustainably generated, then I really don't see a problem with its high consumption (which isn't really that high if you put it into perspective with other, everyday activities that we accept, like gaming, and traditional banking). Especially when you take into consideration the function that PoW plays in securing the network.

Of course, there will be a lot of instances where eco-friendly electricity isn't available. But I think it's ultimately up to the governments to regulate the source of electricity, not bitcoin miners.
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1483
February 20, 2019, 03:10:33 AM
#22
Proof of Stake is also "energy wasting" . Where else does money for buying stakes come from if not from energy.  It's a waste of energy if i get 1 million dollar  from coal mining to stake on a PoS coin. Money dont  grow from trees. Energy produces money.

the same thing applies to bitcoin miners spending money on mining facilities and rigs, or bitcoin investors buying BTC. the question here is about the cost to secure the system itself. assuming coins have already been well distributed, staking as a consensus mechanism doesn't expend energy beyond what running network nodes does.

that's actually the fundamental weakness of POS. if coins aren't well distributed enough, the lack of energy expenditure by minters creates a large attack surface. unlike POW, an attacking minter could build on many different attack chains at once without spending anything. that means chain reorg threats for users, so confirmations become less reliable.
full member
Activity: 1050
Merit: 100
February 20, 2019, 12:01:18 AM
#21
I think with the development of more mining, of course there must be regulations so that everything goes according to the existing rules, especially for large miners. so that everything can go well
copper member
Activity: 2324
Merit: 2142
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February 19, 2019, 10:23:58 PM
#20
The mining industry can be treated the same as any other industry. It has externalities and must be regulated. Some country requires businesses/factories to pay more taxes to compensate for its externalities. Some government also requires Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

For home scale mining, it's not that significant since they can only draw limited power, and must be registered as a business to draw more power.
member
Activity: 209
Merit: 10
February 19, 2019, 12:34:08 PM
#19
I personally don't buy any of this stuff about mining causing such a huge problems when it comes to electricity usage and pollution. There is far more and far worse industries that spend much more resources and pollute much more then mining will ever be able to do.

Of course it would be best if mining could be done only using renewable energy source, but if people worried so much about pollution and energy efficiency we should first turn our heads toward other much more problematic industries.

Technically I absolutely agree with you, and I have to admit that at first I was going to say almost the same words. But then I thought it was probably not the best way of conducting a dialog. Playing the blame game will not resolve the problems. Much more people die each year because of road accidents than because of terrorism, but it doesn't mean terrorism shouldn't be dealt with.

I think this is a very useful thread, and regardless of the fact that other industries cause much more damage to the environment, we can try to suggest some solutions here.

Well I see what you mean, that is why I wrote my second sentence, but it did not express my thoughts precisely enough.

I don't have any issues with finding better and sustainable, more green approach to the way we live on this planet and I do support it. What annoys me is that media don't focus on obvious polluting industries simply because they are among us for century or more and then they make elephant out of a fly with things like pollution that comes from something so marginal on grand scale like mining.
legendary
Activity: 2436
Merit: 1362
February 19, 2019, 12:29:22 PM
#18
Renewable energy for mining is a great idea but like everything
else pertaining energy consumption the change will be slow.

The infrastructure required to reduce car emmisions by creating
EV's is moving at slow pace. Governments are not doing enough
to speed up the process.

Getting infrastructure to homes and business in the form of wind,
wave and solar is another bridge to be crossed.

Are the mining farms going to put their own infrastructure in place?
I doubt it very much.
legendary
Activity: 2114
Merit: 2248
Playgram - The Telegram Casino
February 19, 2019, 11:42:50 AM
#17
We can agree that the environmental hazards which results from mining on PoW algorithm is quite exaggerated, maybe due to the skepticism which already exists around bitcoin from the public and what the media puts out.
But going green is a solution that can help both parties. Environmental degradation should not be taken likely.
member
Activity: 952
Merit: 41
February 19, 2019, 11:23:11 AM
#16
The only way for the mining sector of bitcoin to be enhanced is through the introduction of renewed equipment and moving from the traditional energy supplying to more advanced way of getting energy supply e.g moving from electricity to solar system this will help in reducing the environmental hazardness and also having new mining softwares will also help in making mining easy and affordable.
hero member
Activity: 1218
Merit: 534
February 19, 2019, 11:22:22 AM
#15
This is why many coins are moving over to Proof of Stake, some believe POS is a superior system because it doesn't waste as much electricity and doesn't reward dumpers but the holders instead.
legendary
Activity: 3374
Merit: 2198
I stand with Ukraine.
February 19, 2019, 10:28:43 AM
#14
I personally don't buy any of this stuff about mining causing such a huge problems when it comes to electricity usage and pollution. There is far more and far worse industries that spend much more resources and pollute much more then mining will ever be able to do.

Of course it would be best if mining could be done only using renewable energy source, but if people worried so much about pollution and energy efficiency we should first turn our heads toward other much more problematic industries.

Technically I absolutely agree with you, and I have to admit that at first I was going to say almost the same words. But then I thought it was probably not the best way of conducting a dialog. Playing the blame game will not resolve the problems. Much more people die each year because of road accidents than because of terrorism, but it doesn't mean terrorism shouldn't be dealt with.

I think this is a very useful thread, and regardless of the fact that other industries cause much more damage to the environment, we can try to suggest some solutions here.
Ucy
sr. member
Activity: 2674
Merit: 403
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February 19, 2019, 09:22:49 AM
#13
Proof of Stake is also "energy wasting" . Where else does money for buying stakes come from if not from energy.  It's a waste of energy if i get 1 million dollar  from coal mining to stake on a PoS coin. Money dont  grow from trees. Energy produces money.

Energy paid for is not wasted esp if it's renewable energy.

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