"#Bitcoin #mining now consumes two whole percent of electricity in the US, all to perform math problems that are entirely pointless by design.
None of that touches on the vast architecture that has accreted around #cryptocurrency—the forums and the exchanges and the #NFTs—like some cancerous tumor."
@HeavenlyPossum
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/over-2-percent-of-the-uss-electricity-generation-now-goes-to-bitcoin/
@josemurilo the energy is being spent to buy bitcoin.
It's not that bitcoin consumes it but that people are willing to trade it for the value they get for Bitcoin.
No, that is the electricity wasted to perform math problems to “mint” new bitcoin.
@HeavenlyPossum not at all.
Bitcoin could be run from a solar panel and a car battery. It doesn't take that much energy to run the Bitcoin system.
However, people do decide that they would like to pay more in energy as they bid for new bitcoin. That is their choice, and It reflects the value of Bitcoin to each person exchanging extra energy for the Bitcoin.
Mining bitcoin doesn't have to be expensive. But people have decided it's worth more energy, so they trade more energy for it.
@volkris @HeavenlyPossum @josemurilo Deforestation doesn't have to hurt the forest. it's just that people believe the trees are more valuable as lumber than as live trees. It's their choice to cut the trees. It's their decision to turn the tree into lumber. Not the best analogy, I know. Things made of lumber have actual value, unlike crypto.
You almost had it. The people willingly trading energy for crypto do so because they value the crypto.
Same as people turning trees into lumber. Those people value the lumber, and the people trading energy for crypto value the crypto.
@brinnbelyea Why do they value crypto? Who cares! Fact is they do value it for whatever reason, and there you go.
Why do people value super bowl tickets or VHS recordings of old Seinfeld episodes?
People are weird. But that's just how people are.
@volkris @brinnbelyea @josemurilo
If you want to scam people with a pump-and-dump scheme using a speculative asset, it would be far more efficient to sell them shares in Dutch tulip bulbs, not pointless math problems that consume 2% of all electricity generated in the US.
@volkris @HeavenlyPossum @josemurilo Why do they value the crypto? because they want to overthrow the financial system and appropriate all the resources of the world for themselves. It's evil.