Quote from: Wilikon on February 05, 2015, 03:05:17 PM

Quote from: bmarch on February 05, 2015, 01:13:13 AM

Hi Bitcointalk,

The following is an article I wrote that argues how free energy devices might be developed more quickly now thanks to Bitcoin. I'm hoping to forward these ideas in some way. I hope it's a shared interest in this community as well. I appreciate any tips and comments!

-BM

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Bitcoin has become a driver for many financial and technical innovations. From being able to send funds with a cents-on-the-dollar fee, to being able to run a headless international payments system. A possibility I think that is overlooked is its additional ability to drive innovation in the free energy space.

Free energy was a concept hypothesized and successfully carried out in practice by 20th century physicist Nikola Tesla, and other since. Free energy is the ability to extract usable electricity from static in the air. Many inventors have worked with the free energy concept and have developed prototypes. Few if any prototypes make it to market however due to the entrenched nature of the petroleum, coal, and centrally-controlled and metered power utility companies. Free energy, being a radically decentralized form of procuring usable electricity, goes strongly against their business model. Stories from around the internet can be found where inventors are bullied or killed by those who have stake in the centrally-controlled electricity infrastructure model in order to keep their prototypes from being developed for the wider market.

I would argue that Bitcoin, in its architecture which rewards computing power being added to the network, would also by extension reward and provide incentive for the further development and deployment of free energy technologies.

A gripe among Bitcoin enthusiasts is that profitability becomes difficult to achieve when faced with fixed, and in some cases, steep electricity costs. Costs imposed on these Bitcoin network operators (miners) are a result of the centrally-controlled electricity infrastructure. The centrally-controlled electricity infrastructure, in most cases run by state agencies, are filled with slack and theft, as are probably most state-run agencies. These slack and theft costs in turn result in a higher price for electricity that would be above its true cost by some margin. As an aside, one can speculate that the true costs of electricity are too high as well given that it is now the 21st century but free energy concepts have been demonstrated early in the 20th century.

Bitcoin network operators / miners will continue to seek alternative ways to increase their profitability, like all rational actors. Unlike ordinary consumers of electricity, whose business or personal endeavors lie somewhat more abstracted from the cost of electricity, to Bitcoin miners the cost of electricity is of prime concern. Any way to increase power output per dollar spent grants a large competitive advantage. So for this group an alternative electricity solution would be particularly appealing more so than to the average home or business owner.

I argue that with Bitcoin miners seeking to increase their power output per dollar spent more than other actors in the economy that this will drive for more rapid development and adoption of free energy technologies. Where other actors historically have blocked free energy tech. from emerging, or have been largely indifferent, the incentives guiding Bitcoin mining will lead to free energy emerging sooner than if Bitcoin did not exist. For the first individual or group that can secure and deploy mining hardware with a fraction or none of the electricity costs normally associated, this person or group will make profits that will blow the other miners out of the water completely. For the reclusive inventor sitting on some piece of tech., the entrepreneurial Bitcoin miner seeking to MASSIVELY blow out their profits, would want to meet, shake hands, and tactfully develop something. To put it bluntly, reliably usable free energy tech. is the next big nut for Bitcoin to crack, and once it does, it may feel like the world rapidly leaps to a stage in development that has been decades overdue.

The wider impact that will result is difficult to fathom. It would have the potential to rapidly stabilize debt levels in the developed world. Pulling this off would ensure that the developed world could continue forth without having to rely on immigration, on exporting its institutions to less developed cultures that may not yet be ready to assimilate them, or on old-world pillage-and-plunder-of-resource tactics through military aggression.

I hope this essay inspires and reaches the right people.

If you enjoyed reading please tip me at 152DrxMzxQnzsLRzKWgS61foSfTZ3kygvR. I think about this stuff a lot and could always use the extra coins Wink

We are but a few years away from what the light bulb did to the candle and oil. We haven't cracked that puzzle yet, but it will be cracked eventually. Then this (almost free) energy will impact everyone, everywhere, including bitcoin. Computer systems with built in bitcoin mining hardware will be common place by then.

As far as what you are describing, we are still here. Not light bulb yet.

http://i.imgur.com/W9SGxyt.jpg

I agree. It's important to do what you can to advance goals like this, in my opinion. Lest we sit around like yokels, ivory tower academics, or lazy rich people.