Quote from: TangentC on June 18, 2021, 06:11:30 PM

Quote from: Gatorelf on June 18, 2021, 04:53:09 PM

Quote from: Abiky on June 17, 2021, 10:15:25 PM

Quote from: Naficopa on June 11, 2021, 06:56:09 AM

People moved to electric cars to save GAS/Patrol spending not to save the environment. Electric cars run on electricity and this electricity is mostly generated by burning fossil fuels.
PoW is power greedy and I don't think it will be replaced by any other consensus algo in the future. A counter argument is that bitcoin power consumption can be justified by using clean energy i.e. generated from water, wind, sun etc.

That's certainly true, mate. There's basically no such thing as "environmentally-friendly". One way or another, fossil fuels are used, harming the environment as we know it. Bitcoin's energy consumption may seem high to many, but it's in fact low when compared to the amount of energy consumed by traditional financial institutions (aka banks). The pioneer cryptocurrency can go green, if miners decide to run their equipment on solar or wind energy. Saying that Bitcoin is harmful to the environment is only a failed attempt to spread FUD from mainstream media, banks, and wealthy people alike. No matter the criticism, Bitcoin will thrive because of its decentralized and censorship-resistant design. I don't think Bitcoin will switch to PoS in the future, because the consensus algorithm is not as secure as PoW is.

Nonetheless, it seems to me that PoW ain't going anywhere. High or low energy consumption won't make a difference since it's used to help secure the Blockchain. ASIC mining hardware will certainly improve over time as chips become more energy efficient than ever. As long as Bitcoin remains decentralized and censorship-resistant, nothing else matters. I'd envision a future where most altcoins will switch to PoS, while Bitcoin remains with the classic "Nakamoto Consensus". There are far more important things to focus on besides Bitcoin's energy consumption. Just my thoughts Grin

the argument isn't so much as "where" the energy comes from, its that fact that it uses a great deal for computations.

Considering this is still an evolving market and seems that POW has the advantage of being more secure, what happens when exchanges start offering insured accounts up to x amount just like a bank. I believe Coinbase already has some type of account guaranty against unauthorized use. Its interesting of the 10 plus accounts I had the last five years with 50 plus different crypto's I never had an unauthorized transaction. However my Visa card has been compromised no less than five times

Just thinking of the future and how things evolve, I was told BTC could never go to POS which I thought was the way.

That is an often misspoken fallacy, PoW is not more secure than PoS,
Both are secure or insecure depending on 1 specific condition , the Majority.

Many PoW Coins have suffered 51% attacks,
Many PoS Coins have suffered 51% attacks.

Some PoW coin have never suffered a 51% attack.
Some PoS coin have never suffered a 51% attack.

The algorithms themselves will not secure a coin,
all that secure PoW is the majority of Pooled Hashrate,
all that secure PoS is the majority of staking coins.

So the good will of the majority is the answer for both.

In Bitcoin Case as long as the top 4 pool operators don't collude, bitcoin is safe,
but if the top 4 pool operators ever do collude, 51% attack in bitcoin is unstoppable.
Kind of makes you wonder why people think bitcoin is so secure, when only 4 guys could totally decimate it in a day.

In Cardano Case, they have over 2500 PoS pools, and they limit the max % one pool can dominate by code design.
So Cardano PoS has more protection from colluding mining pool operators than Bitcoin PoW.

Because the collusion would take a much greater majority of operators than 4 like BTC.

FYI:
In Bitcoin PoW history ,
the Majority Rewrote 6 hours of bitcoin blocks in 2013, proving the majority will move the PoW chain however they deem fit.
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/bitcoin-network-shaken-by-blockchain-fork-1363144448

Quote

The economic damage was significant, but fairly small; the only monetary losses that have been reported are the $26,000 USD worth of mining block rewards from the 24 mined blocks of 25 BTC that are now forever lost in the now abandoned chain, as well as a $10,000 double spend against OKPay.

A Doublespend has occurred on the Bitcoin PoW network.

No Doublespends have ever occurred on the Cardano PoS network.

From the above, PoW does not seem all that secure. Wink

great answer, security seemed to be the dominating augment for the use of BTC vs any other Alt