The U.S government wants to crack down on the ballooning energy consumption of Bitcoin miners.

Destroying the environment and not even for real money

@pirat@lemmy.world
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What makes it less real than other fiat currencies, if I may ask? If a currency is agreed upon being valid by multiple parties, I’d argue it is “real money”.

It’s a speculative asset, based on the bigger fool theory. You need to sell it for real money to pay your taxes.

@Snekeyes@lemmy.world
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“Research has found that bitcoin miners alone consume approximately between 60 to 125 TWh of energy annually, which is equivalent to around 0.6% of global electricity”

“Traditional banks’ total annual energy consumption of traditional banks is around 26 TWh on running servers, 26 TWh on ATMs, and 87 TWh from an estimate of 600k+ branches worldwide. Totaling 139 TWh.”

Not to mention banks impact on people’s lives. Limited purchasing power of the poor and soon to join them middle class… to purchase disposable products

https://www.iyops.org/post/energy-consumption-cryptocurrency-vs-traditional-banks

@merdaverse@lemmy.world
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Proof of work is not even scalable to the level of current bank transactions. Ethereum network didn’t have enough compute to clear the backlog created by some niche cat NFT “game” a few years ago when people still gave a shit about NFTs.

Limited purchasing power of the poor and middle class is a political problem, not a problem solved by tech, no matter what crypto gurus and tech messiahs will tell you. The most prolific crypto miners are the ones that already have more “traditional” capital to invest. So crypto is not solving the wealth divide, it is just making it worse.

I hate banks as much as anyone, but crypto is not the solution.

Eager Eagle
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Misleading title - the problem is not “crypto”, it’s pretty much all Bitcoin and the people against the change in the consensus mechanism. Out of the top 10 9 coins in market cap, Bitcoin is the only one using proof of work, which demands such high energy requirements.

@SuckMyWang@lemmy.world
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Isn’t it strange no one gave a shit about this a year and a half ago when the price was lower? It appears everyone’s concern for the environment and energy consumption only increases when the price goes up. Interesting correlation or may be causation.

@Nilz@sopuli.xyz
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Everyone already gave a shit about this a long time ago. It’s also one of the reasons Ethereum switched from proof of work to proof of stake.

Yes but only when the price was high did anyone care and ethereum switch. Barely a peep for the last 2 and a half years

@fidodo@lemmy.world
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I’ve been hearing about the stupid amount of energy usage for years and years. You just created a straw man that isn’t based on reality.

@SuckMyWang@lemmy.world
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I’ve been keeping a close eye on the news about crypto and there has been virtually no stories about any crypto for the last 2 years, prior to that when the price was high there were a lot of stories about it which is my point. They only started to come back into circulation about 6 months ago. If you remember otherwise you are wrong.

RubberDuck
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Electricity is too cheap for these uses.

FlashMobOfOne
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There is no good reason why this isn’t illegal.

They don’t produce anything except some numbers. A total waste of energy. I had to laugh when this guy I know who is very “progressive” and environmentally concerned got pissy when I pointed out how much energy was wasted on bitcoin mining just because he was into it.

@pedroapero@lemmy.ml
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You should check out the impact of gold production also.

My comment here is a much better use of energy

My lower-down comment is an even better use of energy

@RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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Modern day gold rush.

Digging up more and more dirt for diminishing returns while destroying the environment.

Bitcoin using more and more power for essentially the same.

Elon Musk’s private jet uses energy equivalent to 980 average American households a year. What’s your point?

iquanyin
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the point is we need to stop all this kind of ish or we die. our species is at a crossroads.

@nadir@lemmy.world
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Ah, but we won’t all die. Just the poor. The majority will just live worse, much worse lifes.

The important people like Elon will be mostly fine though and isn’t that what counts?

The miners are taking power from the same grid as everyone else. Miners don’t emit carbon. Electricity generation from fossil fuels does.

The focus should be on moving to a renewable and abundant energy grid. Then let people use it for whatever the fuck they want.

baltakatei
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Ultimately, mining should be banned from the surface of Earth. Let miners build orbital solar panel infrastructure close to the Sun where power is plentiful. See Bitcoin developer Peter Todd’s 2017-09-10 presentation on the subject (transcript).

Edit: Fixed URL. Edit2; Add transcript link.

@maness300@lemmy.world
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Wait till you find out how much energy banking uses…

Per transaction?

baltakatei
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Banks will use progressively less energy per capita as bulk data processing becomes more energy efficient, assuming they donʼt transition to using proof-of-work.

@mvirts@lemmy.world
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Mineral resource mining as well

@ohlaph@lemmy.world
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And father.

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