Is energy consumption going to hold bitcoin back?

[ChrisPop]

I don't think so. More and more miners are starting to use green energy to power their rigs and green power plants are increasing and very fast pace so I don't believe energy will be a problem in the future.

[speedy963]

I don't think so. More and more miners are starting to use green energy to power their rigs and green power plants are increasing and very fast pace so I don't believe energy will be a problem in the future.

In addition, there are few scientists who are researching about a renewable source of energy in which has a low cost and environment friendly. I think when this research is completed and began to launch, this will be very beneficial to all of us, most likely to everyone who are in a struggle of energy in their country.

[Zin-Zang]

Like I said earlier, anyone that does not think Bitcoin Insane Energy Wasting is a major problem is Naive.

Published May 26, 2018
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/bitcoin-backlash-as-miners-suck-up-electricity-stress-power-grids-in-central-washington/

As the cryptocurrency industry morphs into larger, more energy-intensive operations, the Basin’s three public utilities districts (PUDs) are reassessing how they deal with it,
and whether they can — or should even try to — keep up.

In a normal year, demand for electric power in Chelan County grows by perhaps 4 megawatts ­­— enough for around 2,250 homes — as new residents arrive and as businesses start or expand.
But since January 2017, as Bitcoin enthusiasts bid up the price of the currency, eager miners have requested a staggering 210 megawatts for mines they want to build in Chelan County.
That’s nearly as much as the county and its 73,000 residents were already using.
And because it is a public utility, the PUD staff is obligated to consider every request.

The scale of some new requests is mind-boggling.
Until recently, the largest mines in Chelan County used five megawatts or less.
In the past six months, by contrast, miners have requested loads of 50 megawatts and, in several cases, 100 megawatts.
By comparison, a fruit warehouse uses around 2.5 megawatts.

But it’s not simply the scale of requests that is perplexing utility staff.
Many would-be miners have no understanding of how large power purchases work.
In one case this winter, miners from China landed their private jet at the local airport, drove a rental car to the visitor center at the Rocky Reach Dam, just north of Wenatchee, and, according to Chelan County PUD officials, politely asked to see the “dam master because we want to buy some electricity.”

Bitcoin fever has created other, smaller-scale problems for the utility.
Three times a week, on average, utility crews in Chelan County discover unpermitted home miners running computer servers far too large for the electrical grids of residential neighborhoods.
In one instance last year, the transformer outside a bootleg miner’s home overheated and touched off a grass fire, Chelan County PUD officials say.

In other cases, utility crews responding to unusual spikes in power usage have found racks of remotely controlled servers whirring away in empty apartments.
Worse, when the utility began shutting off power to these so-called “rogue operators” earlier this year, some of them became so belligerent that the utility is installing security cameras and bulletproof glass at its downtown Wenatchee headquarters.

By February, the Bitcoin “gold rush,” as Wright calls it, had become so overwhelming that Chelan County PUD declared a three-month moratorium on new mines to determine whether the county can absorb even a fraction of that demand.
But answering that question was more complex than the utility anticipated — and at the recent hearing, the commission voted to extend the freeze another three months.

[iconternal]

To mine the bitcoin or other crypto is in dire need of great energy, but if we compare with the bank then it will be higher bank in the required energy.

[Zin-Zang]

Bitcoin energy wasting is growing exponentially that is the problem , it is growing faster than the infrastructure ability to keep up.
The Banking industry energy footprint took almost a century to reach where it is now , and its growth is not growing exponentially.

The Facts are Proof of Stake is energy efficient, there are even other Proof of Work Algorithms that are way more energy efficient than the one bitcoin uses.
But the miners in their greed, don't want to even switch to a more energy efficient PoW Algorithm such as Groestl or x13 .


https://blog.xtrabytes.global/technology/proof-of-work/

Even if 50% of the energy consumption were to come from renewable energy, it would still not be deemed ecological by any means.
The carbon footprint for a single Bitcoin transaction is still very large, having an equivalence of almost 100 kg of CO2 being produced.

Obviously, this is something that needs to change if we want to save our environment.

The Tipping point is no later than ~ Feb 2020, at that point Bitcoin alone will require the same amount of electricity as the Entire world is producing in 2017.
Before then, either they have to fix the problem, which they have shown no interest in , or the cost of making a bitcoin transaction exceeds the price people are willing to pay, and the bitcoin network is frozen in place.

Electric Utilities have only 2 options:
The Smart ones will ban all bitcoin mining in their areas.
The Dumb/Greedy ones will try and feed a industry that can not be sustained, and spend billions on infrastructures
and then go immediately bankrupt if the Bitcoin industry grinds to a halt.

The reason Bill Gates & Warren Buffet talk about bitcoin as a failure is simple, they already had their top people examine it ,
and concluded it can't survive longer than 2 more years.

The Electricity Waste problem is like an Aneurysm in Bitcoin's Brain and we have less than 2 years before it POPS!

[d0flaming0]

i agree with most of the people here. although bitcoin and blockchain system needs energy, it doesn't really imply that it needs a tremendous amount of energy just to hold transactions everyday. There are also some who are developing their own source of energy which has low cost and eco-friendly. Although it wasn't successful yet, people are spending their time and money to create a more reliable source of energy that could last until lifetime.

[fipper]

With Ethereum most likely moving over to POS and the fact that POS
Is less energy reliant does it mean that going forward bitcoins POW
and high energy consumption will be a factor and a concern in the
efficiency to mine coins?

I do not currently think about and focus on coin mining because the cost is so high right now I'm following some bounty campaigns to get rewarded from what I'm doing

[SHAWN-MIDWAYS]

Energy consumption In no way would hold bitcoin back. Before bitcoin there were already tons and tons of server rooms using lots of electricity. Yes bitcoin miners will need a bit more electricity but I believe that this is not one of the limits that is holding bitcoin back. I think it’s the companies and governments trying to hold bitcoin back so that they can create their own regulated crypto.

[p4npos]

Yes. Energy consumption will have a major role in the performance of Bitcoin. The rates and operating cost of electricity powered hardware is increasing all the time. People will be discouraged from mining. Thus affecting Bitcoin.

[SistaFista]

With Ethereum most likely moving over to POS and the fact that POS
Is less energy reliant does it mean that going forward bitcoins POW
and high energy consumption will be a factor and a concern in the
efficiency to mine coins?

I think that is not the reason. When you use PoW, there are external energy resources from our mining equipment.
But when you move to the PoS, there will be no external energy resource. I think PoW still better from PoS.
The efficiency to mine coin is depend on the coin usage too, not only by the algorithm of mining.

[stayeduptolate]

With Ethereum most likely moving over to POS and the fact that POS
Is less energy reliant does it mean that going forward bitcoins POW
and high energy consumption will be a factor and a concern in the
efficiency to mine coins?

I don’t understand one thing that why people always wants to pull bitcoin back always, bitcoin has always been in controversy and almost people are in against of bitcoin and want bitcoin to get ended and I think that this is also the work of FUDs who are spreading negative rumours about bitcoins that the energy consumption of bitcoin is very high and in the coming decade it will consume twice the electricity consumed by the world currently but I don’t think that it could ever be possible that bitcoin uses very less amount of energy only.