There are, at present, about 300-400k bitcoin transactions daily (~1.3e8/yr), as far as I can Google. That plus the 121 TWh/yr figure (1.2e11 kWh/yr) suggests almost 1 MWh electric per transaction. Retail, that’s high tens to low hundreds of dollars worth of electricity.
But luxury yachts aren’t a good comparison. PoW-coins are a technology for coordination among humans. They need this energy to work. I don’t think that is a general argument against them.
PoW-coins are a technology for coordination among humans.
Bitcoin is not effective for transfering wealths among humans with transaction costs of ~15$ per transaction. People buy Bitcoin because they believe it will rise in price and largely not because they want to use it as a payment platform. Even if you want a crypto-currency there are solutions that more effective and don’t burn as much unnecessary energy.
If you want to hold or move money in a manner that is effectively impossible to interfere with are few solutions so democratised as crypto.
There’s a difference between advocating crypto in general and advocating Bitcoin. Bitcoin is technically inferior to the more modern coins which provide different advantages on top.
Apart from that the Chinese government essentially has control over Bitcoin given that more then half of the mining is in China and they can direct companies to do what they want. It’s power is not democratically distributed.
There is no such thing as a [one currency] to [other currency] rate. They are constantly fluctuating, and whoever is making the market is taking value out, either as a fee or in the bid/ask spread.
Also, 90% of the ways a government or malicious actor can interfere with an electronic transfer of wealth apply to crypto transfers. Specifically, they can threaten your trading partner with reprisals, and the whoke point of crypto is that it keeps a public log of all transactions forever.
Specifically, they can threaten your trading partner with reprisals, and the whoke point of crypto is that it keeps a public log of all transactions forever.
Not of all of crypto. Zcash gives you a more private way to transact. That’s why you would expect it to outcompete Bitcoin for the usecases where privacy is desireable.
Specifically, they can threaten your trading partner with reprisals, and the whoke point of crypto is that it keeps a public log of all transactions forever.
I don’t see a principled reason to treat it different from other processes/activities that require energy/resources.
That said a efficiency comparison to other payment processors might be interesting.
There are, at present, about 300-400k bitcoin transactions daily (~1.3e8/yr), as far as I can Google. That plus the 121 TWh/yr figure (1.2e11 kWh/yr) suggests almost 1 MWh electric per transaction. Retail, that’s high tens to low hundreds of dollars worth of electricity.
There are reason to treat using energy to grow food for people differently then using energy to ship luxury yachts through the ocean.
Bitcoin seems like wasting energy on high status luxury yachts.
But luxury yachts aren’t a good comparison. PoW-coins are a technology for coordination among humans. They need this energy to work. I don’t think that is a general argument against them.
Bitcoin is not effective for transfering wealths among humans with transaction costs of ~15$ per transaction. People buy Bitcoin because they believe it will rise in price and largely not because they want to use it as a payment platform. Even if you want a crypto-currency there are solutions that more effective and don’t burn as much unnecessary energy.
Store of value is an important function too.
Sure it’s great if they work out. But switching may be a coordination problem as well. I’m not sure why, but it hasn’t happened yet.
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There’s a difference between advocating crypto in general and advocating Bitcoin. Bitcoin is technically inferior to the more modern coins which provide different advantages on top.
Apart from that the Chinese government essentially has control over Bitcoin given that more then half of the mining is in China and they can direct companies to do what they want. It’s power is not democratically distributed.
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No, every transaction in bitcoin costs that much.
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There is no such thing as a [one currency] to [other currency] rate. They are constantly fluctuating, and whoever is making the market is taking value out, either as a fee or in the bid/ask spread.
Also, 90% of the ways a government or malicious actor can interfere with an electronic transfer of wealth apply to crypto transfers. Specifically, they can threaten your trading partner with reprisals, and the whoke point of crypto is that it keeps a public log of all transactions forever.
Not of all of crypto. Zcash gives you a more private way to transact. That’s why you would expect it to outcompete Bitcoin for the usecases where privacy is desireable.
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Well it’s at least pseudonymous.