Quote from: johnyj on March 10, 2020, 09:02:50 PM

Quote from: Khaos77 on March 10, 2020, 08:48:06 PM

Quote from: johnyj on March 10, 2020, 07:06:43 PM

No one has complained that gold mining wasted too much energy, since that is a must. You must overcome certain natural energy barrier to mine gold, there is no other way.This energy requirement is fixed regardless of gold's price

Nope,
when actual physical mining operational costs does not match the current price,
miners temporary close the mines which stops all energy used to mine new gold.

They just cease paying for people and resources to mine the gold, they still own the gold mine,
once the price of gold returns mining into profitability they start mining again.
This also does not stop current gold owners from trading gold.

Contrast this with bitcoin flawed design, if the BTC miners take a month pause due to not being profitable the whole network stops.
No bitcoins can be traded with anyone.
Gold does not have that critical flaw,
plus it has uses in the real world that always use up excess supply once prices fall, bitcoin does not.

So yes Virginia, Gold is a better store of value than bitcoin could ever pretend to be.

You seems proved my observation: Gold miners stopping their mining or not, does not change the mining difficulty of gold, thus the energy barrier for mining one ounce of gold stays the same regardless what miners do

However for bitcoin, if lots of miners with old rigs stopped their mining due to unprofitable, the difficulty will go down significantly, thus the cost of mining one bitcoin will become much cheaper. It is self-adjusting, depends on how much people join the competetion. True, if not a single person on planet join the competetion, then the price will drop to zero, but I can guarantee you that won't happen, since I have my mining rigs running 24/7/365 heating my basement Cheesy

Nope, your analyses are off.
The Costs to mine gold, are based on human payroll , equipment costs, petroleum to run the equipment,
all of which have variable factors.
This means the price to mine gold can increase or decrease , but the final decision is always , is the mining currently profitable.

In BTC, Miners with older rigs always stop mining, no more than 2 years after purchase, as the ASICS are no longer profitable.
You confuse a running network with bitcoin earning a profit.

A network can be run at a loss, if the miners or stakers have the personal resources to do so.
Problem with PoW is the hardware costs and energy wasted exceed the average man's ability to continue ,
you can think running a non-profitable ASIC for heat is efficient ,
but the truth is running an better heater is more profitable and cost efficient on a personal basis.

PoW miners go bankrupt all of the time,
You have never heard of a Proof of Stake Staker ever going bankrupt from staking.
Reason being the energy efficiently means that for less than $80 per month (less than most people cable's bill),
an individual can continue to support a strong and secure PoS network.

The Money losing Bitcoin running from your basement, will be neither secure or strong.
And a $50 electric radiator would be better at heating your basement. Cheesy

https://lifesly.com/mining-companies-in-bankruptcy/
Mining Companies In Bankruptcy

Quote

Many crypto mining companies have stopped operating

Experts estimate that the average cost of mining a bitcoin stands at $ 9,000, including overhead and depreciation costs.

But the digital currency is now trading at $ 8,200, 40% below the price of a year and a half ago. In the opinion of Aron van Ammers, technical director and founding partner of Outlier Ventures, a venture capital fund specializing in cryptocurrencies, for many miners, the current price of bitcoin is below cost.

Proof of Waste is turning out to be Proof of Financial Losses Tongue

FYI:
BTC price is in $7k range even lower than when the article was written.