The energy consumption argument against Bitcoin is a nonsensical attempt to obscure the real authoritarian desire to control currency | Reason.com
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I’ll explain what the current issue is with Bitcoin mining:
It’s too profitable.
There’s no alternative usage of electricity that gets a profit better or as good as Bitcoin.
Why is this a (temporary) problem? People will use (relatively) expensive energy to mine bitcoin. The most important factor which gives energy value (that most people oversee) is the location component of the energy. 1,000Giga Joules in New York or near a lot of industry is worth infinitely more than in the middle of nowhere on Antarctica.
That is, until Bitcoin showed up. Because of bitcoin, we now have a use case for remote areas with an abundance of (natural) energy. Over the long-term, bitcoin mining will become less profitable as price volatility decreases (bitcoin becomes more mature) and mining will become more and more commoditized. This means that profit margins will decrease and at some point it will only be possible to generate a profit using the cheapest energy available on planet earth. Fossil fuels will be way too expensive. Energy near cities/industry will be too expensive.
The only type of energy on which it will be possible to run a bitcoin miner and turn a profit is on energy that is so remote the only use case for it is running a bitcoin miner. We are talking about geothermal and hydroelectric generated energy in remote areas on earth (preferably cold). The days of bitcoin miners consuming too much from the grid of a city will for the majority be gone by the end of this decade.
Furthermore, the degree to which bitcoin will accelerate technology to generate energy will be EXTREMELY beneficial to all of humanity.
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Satoshi was and is a genius
“First, they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you”
Cryptocurrency
