Bitcoin already using too much power by 2020?

[7788bitcoin]

I think the growth of hashing rate is slowing down. With more efficient ASIC the power consumption should go under control... I have a feeling that many of the Chinese miners are on board for the gold rush and not planning to stay for long...

[masewild]

I think the growth of hashing rate is slowing down. With more efficient ASIC the power consumption should go under control... I have a feeling that many of the Chinese miners are on board for the gold rush and not planning to stay for long...

As long as the price of the bitcoin does not crash and there is profit to make, any miners will keep on mining.

[Evildrum]

Lot of alarmist threads about energy use for bitcoin and it always fails to consider that tech in this field is also moving forward an Tesla is just one example of this. Not worried!

[pereira4]

Bitcoin uses 0 power compared to the resources that mining gold is required, not to mention all the geological negative impact that mining gold has as a side effect of moving all the terrain because you are forced to hardcore terraform in order to extract whatever gold its left, yet I dont see anyone complaining about it.

[Sandroxa]

You never know what there will happen with Bitcoin in that year because Bitcoin is a currency and that is impossible to predict for what is going to happen.
So you have to wait and see for what will happen later in the future and have also the patience for it.

[ebliever]

What most people don't grasp (including the author of the article in the OP) is that the amount of electricity going into mining BTC is correlated to the amount of new bitcoins being mined - not to the total market cap of bitcoin. In other words, if $1 million of new bitcoins in being mined each day, than it makes sense that just under $1 million of bitcoin mining expenses (ASICs, technicians, warehouse rental, electricity and so on) will be expended in the effort to mine bitcoins. But if that drops to $500,000/day in new bitcoins, then the amount expended on mining will likewise drop in half.

So what does this mean? It means that with every halving the investment in bitcoin mining - including electricity expenses - is going to drop by half, all else being equal. In 2020 we will be having another halving, so after that point the rate of bitcoins being mined will be 1/4 what it is pre-2016 halving. The only way bitcoin will consume as much electricity as Denmark is if the value of each bitcoin rises to stratospheric levels, which will probably only happen if there is a wholesale collapse of fiat currency systems. And even then, the continued halving every 4 years will keep driving electrical use down.

Eventually, in a few dozen years, even if bitcoin is the dominant world currency, the mining of new bitcoins will be so small that the electrical costs will still be correspondingly small. Transaction fees will drive the mining system and corresponding electrical usage, but the need for those fees to stay modest in the face of competition from other cryptocurrency (or whatever) will keep the system from becoming inefficient and overly wasteful of electricity.

TL/DR: Electrical costs for mining bitcoin can only increase if the value of each bitcoin more than doubles every four years (each halving).

[virtualkeybuyer]

why not you attach a small solar panel to your computer/laptop for that work? with solar panel you will cut up the cost of electricity and so will be benefited with mining and transaction etc.

[raphma]

Coal mines ... gold mines ... Datacenters ... and a lot of other things consume more energy than bitcoin network.
But yes. I think we need better ways (ecological forms) for bitcoin mining(as we need for a lot other things), but that should come from farms not from Bitcoin devs.

[ricardobs]

I think the growth of hashing rate is slowing down. With more efficient ASIC the power consumption should go under control... I have a feeling that many of the Chinese miners are on board for the gold rush and not planning to stay for long...

As long as the price of the bitcoin does not crash and there is profit to make, any miners will keep on mining.

Yes, miners will not leave mining if the price will be at a good value, but if the price came back to a lower value then I think miners will no longer continue to mining bitcoin and will adopt some other alt coin to mine.

[Whosdaddy]

I think the growth of hashing rate is slowing down. With more efficient ASIC the power consumption should go under control... I have a feeling that many of the Chinese miners are on board for the gold rush and not planning to stay for long...

As long as the price of the bitcoin does not crash and there is profit to make, any miners will keep on mining.

The miners will not leave mining bitcoin and also the price will not drop down because the miners are not only with small amount of bitcoin but most of them are big whales and they can manipulate the price.

[Grillo]

proof of stake is the future of all cryptos and blockchains.

[BitconAssociation]

What most people don't grasp (including the author of the article in the OP) is that the amount of electricity going into mining BTC is correlated to the amount of new bitcoins being mined - not to the total market cap of bitcoin. In other words, if $1 million of new bitcoins in being mined each day, than it makes sense that just under $1 million of bitcoin mining expenses (ASICs, technicians, warehouse rental, electricity and so on) will be expended in the effort to mine bitcoins. But if that drops to $500,000/day in new bitcoins, then the amount expended on mining will likewise drop in half.

Halving the reward = halving the security of Bitcoin network. Unless, of course, miners manage to compensate for the halving block reward with higher fees. In which case the total reward/power consumption remains the same.

So what does this mean? It means that with every halving the investment in bitcoin mining - including electricity expenses - is going to drop by half, all else being equal.

Correct, if BTC price does not go up, Bitcoin network will consume less electricity with each halving. Of course, Bitcoin will also become half as secure with each halving.

In 2020 we will be having another halving, so after that point the rate of bitcoins being mined will be 1/4 what it is pre-2016 halving. The only way bitcoin will consume as much electricity as Denmark is if the value of each bitcoin rises to stratospheric levels, which will probably only happen if there is a wholesale collapse of fiat currency systems.

By "stratospheric", you, of course, mean 2 * 2 * $450 = $1,800. Or just $600 more than it was worth in 2013.
Stratospheric indeed

[Bitcoinbro]

I think the growth of hashing rate is slowing down. With more efficient ASIC the power consumption should go under control... I have a feeling that many of the Chinese miners are on board for the gold rush and not planning to stay for long...

As long as the price of the bitcoin does not crash and there is profit to make, any miners will keep on mining.

Yes, miners will not leave mining if the price will be at a good value, but if the price came back to a lower value then I think miners will no longer continue to mining bitcoin and will adopt some other alt coin to mine.

I also think this and I think it will not be a big issue in the year of 2020 to be honest, I really hope it will not.
I think there is a good chance this will not happen.

[Gleb Gamow]

I just stumbled upon this article that claims Bitcoin could be consuming as much energy as Denmark by 2020  Since I gave up mining in 2014, I've almost forgotten just how much electricity goes into making Bitcoins. This got me wondering whether the devs are already working on a solution to this problem. Anyone knows what the plan is?

http://inhabitat.com/power-hungry-bitcoin-could-consume-as-much-energy-as-denmark-by-2020/

“Even in the optimistic scenario, just mining one bitcoin in 2020 would require a shocking 5,500 kWh, or about half the annual electricity consumption of an American household,” says Deetman. “I haven’t given up on the idea of distributed network transactions, but a radical rethinking of how these may be secured would be beneficial, be it at least for the environment.” Solar-powered Bitcoin farm: a worthy investment?

For sake of argument, even if ALL the cryptocurrency miners were powered by solar, wouldn't it take close to the same amount of electricity usage to produce, transport, install, etc. for the implementation?

[BitconAssociation]

...
For sake of argument, even if ALL the cryptocurrency miners were powered by solar, wouldn't it take close to the same amount of electricity usage to produce, transport, install, etc. for the implementation?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C84OR53aJVw/U4ZcoMUhk3I/AAAAAAAABeI/HkHy0PJgPM8/s1600/IMG_1251.JPG
https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/article-1300967207614-0b51086100000578-330784_636x336.jpg

[voztata]

I just stumbled upon this article that claims Bitcoin could be consuming as much energy as Denmark by 2020  Since I gave up mining in 2014, I've almost forgotten just how much electricity goes into making Bitcoins. This got me wondering whether the devs are already working on a solution to this problem. Anyone knows what the plan is?

http://inhabitat.com/power-hungry-bitcoin-could-consume-as-much-energy-as-denmark-by-2020/

I think energy is not that much expensive that miners will leave mining it, and in the coming days the developers will device some techniques so that the energy consumptions will be reduced.

[masewild]

I just stumbled upon this article that claims Bitcoin could be consuming as much energy as Denmark by 2020  Since I gave up mining in 2014, I've almost forgotten just how much electricity goes into making Bitcoins. This got me wondering whether the devs are already working on a solution to this problem. Anyone knows what the plan is?

http://inhabitat.com/power-hungry-bitcoin-could-consume-as-much-energy-as-denmark-by-2020/

I think energy is not that much expensive that miners will leave mining it, and in the coming days the developers will device some techniques so that the energy consumptions will be reduced.

If it is still PoW, the energy consumption will still increase if the bitcoin becomes more popular in the future.

[MyBTT]

Aaaand thats why we made mining pools. We already know that Bitcoin uses a lot of power and thats why, if you want to make money, you get yourself into a mining pool. It still uses a lot of power, but you can earn more money.

[RobinHoodster]

I think the growth of hashing rate is slowing down. With more efficient ASIC the power consumption should go under control... I have a feeling that many of the Chinese miners are on board for the gold rush and not planning to stay for long...

As long as the price of the bitcoin does not crash and there is profit to make, any miners will keep on mining.

You never know what can happen with Bitcoin and that is the problem because there are still a lot of people that is hoping that the value will be more worth but you cant control it and that is bad.
But it is the risk that you should take and that you have also to sell it on the right moment.

[co5hike]

why is the bitcoin using t much power that's only great because how many publicity he gets
how better it is for the future of the coin. And he wont disappear is more and more people are using them.
so be patient he will be big.

Yes bitcoin will be more powerful in future for sure, the only thing it needs is the support from the Government and the society once it is done,it will be the most powerful currency.