I’m not a specialist, just learning, my vocabulary and ideas might not be well adjusted: correct me if I’m wrong.
Regarding blockchain in general, when a block is validated by a miner, then every other miner stops its own work on its own block and everybody accepts the validated block and goes on to work on the validation of a new block, until someone validates its block and so on. This means that the more energy is spent to validate blocks, the faster is the block validation process, because more people searching will statistically find a solution faster overtime.
Regarding Bitcoin in particular, the total power dedicated to mining must allow a block validation about every 10 minutes. If too many miners get involved, then the average resolution time will shrink. In order to avoid this situation, two solutions:
1. The calculus to validate a block can be made more complex (or simplified)
2. Once in a while the bitcoin reward for a proof of work can be divided
If miners were mining Bitcoin for itself, these two solutions would always adjust the number of miners. Unfortunately you can hardly live only on bitcoins, you need to change them for FIAT currencies at some point. Most Bitcoin owners have absolutely no intention to make transactions in Bitcoins. Bitcoin is rather an asset for speculation over the bitcoin/dollar exchange rate. As a consequence, when the
BTC/$ rate raises, more and more people start mining, because even if they earn less Bitcoins, they will earn more dollars. In fact these people use more and more energy in order to validate a same number of transactions.
In other words, as long as the bitcoin will be an underlying asset for speculators, we will assist to a monumental waste of energy throughout the world.
Some may say that some of this energy is already used to heat habitations, but what are we talking about, 0.0001% of the global heat produced by miners?
I was reading this morning that
one single Bitcoin transaction consumes as much energy as an average American family for a whole week. This ratio will get even worse when the
BTC/$ rate raises.
My point is the following : I buy a croissant in bitcoins and it is worse one week of energy for my whole family. Does this makes Bitcoin the greatest polluter of all times ?
Is this what the solution of the future for money looks like?
What do you think?
Je82
