[2016-03-29] motherboard : Bitcoin Could Consume as Much Electricity

[shane]

These are two possibly conflicting fascinations, as previously pointed out by Christopher Malmo here at Motherboard. That’s because bitcoin is incredibly energy intensive: at the time of Malmo’s piece, he calculated that a single bitcoin transaction requires as much electricity as the daily consumption of 1.6 American households, and that number has increased since then. “Adopting Bitcoin as a major currency anytime in the next few decades,” he wrote, “would just exacerbate anthropogenic climate change by needlessly increasing electricity consumption until it’s too late.”

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/bitcoin-could-consume-as-much-electricity-as-denmark-by-2020

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[Kprawn]

Not to be biased, please ask them to calculate how much the fiat system is costing to .... Print money {from the raw resources to the end product} then take the energy consumed to take it to the user.

Compare the energy consumed to run the private mainframes and networks {private ledgers} and the ATM costs {24/7} and also the vaults and the brick n mortar buildings and the Air conditioning in

these buildings and all the security surrounding these buildings... Do you still think the fiat system use less electricity than Bitcoin? Nope....   

[RodeoX]

Not to be biased, please ask them to calculate how much the fiat system is costing to .... Print money {from the raw resources to the end product} then take the energy consumed to take it to the user.

Compare the energy consumed to run the private mainframes and networks {private ledgers} and the ATM costs {24/7} and also the vaults and the brick n mortar buildings and the Air conditioning in

these buildings and all the security surrounding these buildings... Do you still think the fiat system use less electricity than Bitcoin? Nope....   

Amen brother. Their comparison implies that our current systems are somehow sustainable and not consuming vast energy resources. Never have I seen a criticism of the wasted energy of ATM machines, for example.

[Carlton Banks]

“Adopting Bitcoin as a major currency anytime in the next few decades,” he wrote, “would just exacerbate anthropogenic climate change by needlessly increasing electricity consumption until it’s too late.”

That would be a serious problem if anthropogenic climate change (a.k.a "the weather") was itself a serious problem. It only presents a problem in as far as there are an entire industry of shameless "environmental scientists" lending authority to this nonsense for the benefit of their political paymasters.

Put simply: no-one is taxing the air I breathe. Fuck. Off. And with Bitcoin, there won't be an effective tax on anything. I predict a significant stand-off between "environmentalists" and Bitcoiners on this issue. I predict Bitcoin wins.