"#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.
And yet 2% of all electricity consumed in the US is wasted on bitcoin mining.
@HeavenlyPossum it's not wasted, it's traded.
The people trading it value what they get in exchange.
Otherwise they wouldn't.
No, it is wasted, in the sense that bitcoin is a vehicle for speculative arbitrage. It is wasted in the sense that the point of the computations that unlock more Bitcoin are purposefully pointless. It’s a solution in search of a problem.
@HeavenlyPossum @josemurilo @volkris The problem is that bitcoin proponents do not own everything on Earth and rule over the rest of us. Bitcoin is their solution to that "problem".
@brinnbelyea No that's not the case at all.
It has nothing to do with owning everything on earth. It only has to do with buying energy to trade for something they value.
