Post
Topic
Board Altcoin Discussion
Re: Can we reduce the energy consumption of POW? And whether it is necessary
by
j1792
on 18/12/2023, 13:22:49 UTC
Crypto mining is the least energy consumption people need to worry about, there are a lot of other stuff that consume massive energy. Food processing, transportation, .etc. According to this article, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/bitcoin-energy-use-compare-industry Bitcoin only consumes 0.28% of energy of total energy consumption by Transportation.

https://www.techopedia.com/bitcoin-mining-and-energy-statistics#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20New%20York,cooling%20throughout%20the%20US%20annually.

In here, Bitcoin mining consumes roughly 0.5% of all energy produced worldwide.

That number is insignificant, even if all the miners stop, energy crisis will still happening. 

Thank you very much for your discussion. In fact, just like you, I don’t think the energy consumption and carbon emissions of mining itself will be a problem.

But we cannot ignore the cost of energy consumption, and this cost needs to be paid by every Bitcoin holder.

Of course, we can think of mining as an investment behavior that requires income and returns. Considering the risks brought by price fluctuations and the increase in the hash rate of the entire network, the annualized return of mining should be higher than other lower-risk activities. invest.

The cost of miners mainly includes equipment and electricity costs. Equipment investment, electricity costs, and miner profits are ultimately paid by Bitcoin holders and potential holders. There is no doubt that electricity bills will eventually become the most significant cost of running the entire network. If we can reduce this cost, fewer miners will shut down after the block reward is halved, and the entire network will be more secure.