Topic: Total Global Combined Electricity Cost of Bitcoin? - page 2. (Read 4492 times)

Where the hell are you getting those numbers?

If we take the GROSS assumption that the bitcoin mining community is both efficient and rational, then the cost in hardware, time, and energy should be equal to the price. With 144 bitcoins generated per day at $13.50 each, the cost is roughly $1944 per day. Now you just have to estimate how irrational the miners and speculators are, but I think it's safe to assume $500-$5000 per day.

Total cost of advanced combined cycle natural gas-fired energy costs $63.1/megawatthours or $1514.4/megawattdays.

Merged mining will do exactly what you want, its already implemented and will become doable in just a few months. Just like in the example above merged mining will work with any Bitcoin based block chain and proof of work system. Hence you could mine Bitcoins, Namecoins, Hashcoins, Goldcoins and any other coins you can think of all at once, you just submit your hashes to whatever networks you want to mine on.  Once major mining pools switch to Namcoin/Bitcoin merged mining it will be like all the mining power in those pools was direct to mining Namecoins (aka Namecoin will get deep bits 6 tera hashes) except that same hashing power will still be going to the Bitcoin network as well. This means we can have an unlimited number of block chains and they can all have the same level of security as Bitcoin at no extra cost in electricity, hardware, or anything really.

the longer bitcoin hangs out, the higher the probability that this will in fact be the case.  in fact, all this stable sideways action is VERY bullish IMO.

I'd personally like to see adjustments to Bitcoin that make it the backbone of all future proof-of-work systems, that way we wouldn't have hundreds of competing systems all wasting energy. Not sure how/if this is possible though, or what type of other systems will spring up in future.

but if btc takes over and rids us of the over bloated banking system, net net, we'll have cutbacks in wasted electricity.

I can guarantee you that Bitcoin uses less power, and has less of an impact on the environment than all the money factories, trading companies (Paypal), and central banks it would make obsolete. If Bitcoin was the words currency it would be significantly greener than the current way money is handled.

Yes I made an error the network use 10 MW and not MHh and indeed it is arrouund 1/100 of a nuclear plant

And also, even with very cheap prices, 1 transaction should have a fee of at least 1 USD to sustain the current hashing rate!

Just note: MW/hour is nonsense. Power is in Watts, total energy consumed in Watts*hours (or Joules).

If the network has 10 MW now, each block, on average, consumes 1.66 MWh to be mined. So, if there are, for example 100 transactions in single block, each transaction (moving 1 BTC from your wallet to another) needs about 16 kWh!

So, to transfer a single transaction, about 3 kg of quality black coal must be burned.

I considered 38000 video card such as ATI 5870, 400 mh for 250 watt
38000 x 400 = 15 TH/sec
38000 X 250watt = 9,500,000 = 9.5 MW/hour or 1/100th of a nuclear reactor and not 1/3:)

I HIGHLY doubt that 10 Gigawatts are used for ~15 TH/s - this would mean that 1 MH/s uses 666.6...W I guess even CPUs can beat that, hm?

No, we use more than 10 000 000kWh and a nuclear power plant make 33 600 MWh for the best one so we take 1/3 of a nuclear installation

Oh not the "free energy" bullshit PLEASE

That is relative to cost of electricity. some people pay 1/3 that others do. Business rates.
Did you figure that in?

I think we are around 1600-1800 bitcoins spent in electricity every day for mining or ~10 MegaWatt/hour for 15 terahash of network speed.

Okay, i'll be a little more serious.
Nikola Tesla discovered around 1900 or so, that the Earth, spinning in motion, creates an electrical field, and this is what causes lightning. This electrical field also contains potential energy we call electricity. This electricity was harnessed by Tesla by placing large coils that tapped into the earth's electrical fields, in the ground. With this, he lit the world's fair in NYC I think, it was in 1922, completely Free. With this newly discovered form of electricity, called "Free Energy". But since his main financier, J.P. Morgan could not place a switch on this new form of electricity, mainly, because it was , FREE, J.P. Morgan cut the funding for Tesla's new electricity and here we are today, using Rockefeller's oil petrol byproduct, GASOLINE, which is actually oil refining WASTE, when we could be using Alcohol Gas or even better, Tesla's Free Electricity.

Now as far as the Global Warming is concerned, the evidence shows that the Earth is warming in temperatures equal to the rise in temperature of distant planets, which means the Sun is warming up, in some periods, causing the other planets to warm equally. It's not due to our human waste and ignorance that Venus and Mars are heating up as well as the Earth, and even Jupiter and Saturn and Pluto and Neptune. We are not that powerful no matter how much we throw away or spill, or burn. lol

That's just the facts. I worked with environmental groups, political action groups and hardcore political groups, i'm not just talking shit. Just take time to check it out for yourself, instead of believing the propaganda. Imagine everything you know is a lie and start from there, my friend. Good Luck.

There are like 40.000GPUs hashing right now. A nuclear power plant is a bit too much imho for them... 

cheque's in teh mail

Arround 10 000 000 kWh (under-estimated)