Could bitcoin mining solve climate change?

[fowlertm]

Philosopher and environmentalist Troy Cross has arisen as one of the most prominent scholars making the case that bitcoin mining has certain special properties which make it ideally suited to powering the development of renewable energies.

Check out his interview on the Futurati Podcast, where he discusses his radical proposals for new financial instruments that foster the 'greening' of bitcoin mining.

[Doan9269]

So what's in new here? Everyone know that bitcoin mining is pretty good with the alternative of going green with renewable energy source, what is the important message Troy Cross is trying to pass or is it the usual thing we already know which is the lrice of beans and rice in the market, at least let's try create topics that are insightful with new thought, you may only wanted to attract traffic on your site through this.

[NeuroticFish]

Check out his interview on the

If you want to discuss, write here the most important ideas. I don't go to watch random youtube movies only for you to get more hits.


I don't expect anything new to be said there. Mining Bitcoin is just a tiny fraction of human activities that use electricity.
For real changes towards helping this planet big (and costly) steps must be made and nobody is willing to make them, hence they are diverting mass media's eyes towards bitcoin mining.

[so98nn]

I believe that’s what Tesla’s agenda is! To make the environment more happier by reducing pollution with the help of electric vehicles. At least that’s what it looks like with their behaviour.

Because they were so clear when they became unhappy with the bitcoin mining and its greenhouse effects due to higher electrical energy usage. That’s why they switched to DOGE, remember?

I think bitcoin mining is not pushing anything towards greener power house and stuff. Its all about making money through big mining farms.

Yes there are subsidies and few great examples are trying to improve the mining operations but as whole I believe that % is too less.

[Accardo]

Troy Cross is a philosopher that recently joined the twitter cryptocurrency community and know little about bitcoin, though, he claims to know about bitcoin mining but he skipped the first question about the conception of bitcoin mining by saying; they are different meaning to conception and he attended a graduate school where the meaning of conception was the principal topic for a course. The second question he attempted was about the energy consumption of bitcoin he noted that dryers in the USA consume more energy than bitcoin and so on. But, one thing, he got wrong was the bitcoin market capitalization, I don't know when this podcast was recorded, he said the market cap is below a trillion but, its now a trillion dollar as of today. The podcast is long, and the philosopher uses philosophy to answer questions regarding bitcoin something that doesn't interest me.

[Upgrade00]

I believe that’s what Tesla’s agenda is! To make the environment more happier by reducing pollution with the help of electric vehicles. At least that’s what it looks like with their behaviour.

Because they were so clear when they became unhappy with the bitcoin mining and its greenhouse effects due to higher electrical energy usage. That’s why they switched to DOGE, remember?

Tesla as with majority of media companies found it profiting to push the agenda that Bitcoin damages the environment and consumes more electricity that Wakanda or some other bs.
This is not a reflection of the reality at all.

I think bitcoin mining is not pushing anything towards greener power house and stuff. Its all about making money through big mining farms.

Yes there are subsidies and few great examples are trying to improve the mining operations but as whole I believe that % is too less.

Reports from the last couple of years actually show that Bitcoin mining is majorly consuming green energy. Here's a report you can read through to get more information - https://coinshares.com/research/bitcoin-mining-network-december-2019

The report does not talk about great examples, but the vast majority being environmentally friendly.

[hatshepsut93]

The idea that Bitcoin mining would make renewable energy more attractive is not new, it started floating around the same time when it became clear that Bitcoin's energy use is rapidly increasing and already became noticeable on a global scale. So it's already time to show the real world examples of how Bitcoin helps renewables. Where are they?

[Baofeng]

The idea that Bitcoin mining would make renewable energy more attractive is not new, it started floating around the same time when it became clear that Bitcoin's energy use is rapidly increasing and already became noticeable on a global scale. So it's already time to show the real world examples of how Bitcoin helps renewables. Where are they?

We don't hear any to be honest. The only thing I remember is that some of the heat produces by bitcoin mining was that it is used as somewhat of heater. But this was when bitcoin can be mine at home and that the hardware is not that expensive. So I doubt that we will hear someone doing solo mining at the basement of his sound as then uses the heat or at least repurposing it. Or if there is a huge bitcoin mining near residence, perhaps they can do that as well specially in cold season.

[edgycorner]

Troy Cross is a philosopher that recently joined the twitter cryptocurrency community and know little about bitcoin, though, he claims to know about bitcoin mining but he skipped the first question about the conception of bitcoin mining by saying; they are different meaning to conception and he attended a graduate school where the meaning of conception was the principal topic for a course. The second question he attempted was about the energy consumption of bitcoin he noted that dryers in the USA consume more energy than bitcoin and so on. But, one thing, he got wrong was the bitcoin market capitalization, I don't know when this podcast was recorded, he said the market cap is below a trillion but, its now a trillion dollar as of today. The podcast is long, and the philosopher uses philosophy to answer questions regarding bitcoin something that doesn't interest me.

Probably trying to build a crypto audience and get some sponsors since a Philosophy degree pays shit.

As for the development of renewable energy, Bitcoin mining is one of many thousand use cases for energy. And if you rank them all according to their capital then Bitcoin mining won't even be in top 1000. Emphasis on mining, as his argument involves around it and that's the only part where bitcoin required a substantial energy to function.

Like I have already said, Bitcoin mining is just another use case. Widespread use of renewable and passive energy requires adoption from an entire sector to be of any effect(economically and environmentally).

https://www.unep.org/interactive/six-sector-solution-climate-change/

Another thing, before we start blaming how people use their electricity(like for mining bitcoins), maybe we should focus on how that electricity is produced  

Maybe this philosopher needs to attend middle school again lol

[Fundamentals Of]

Bitcoin mining is using energy and emits carbon dioxide to the air. How could it then solve climate change? On the contrary, just like many human activities, Bitcoin mining is actually contributing to climate change. And even if Bitcoin mining shifts entirely to the use of green energy it doesn't mean that it stops from emitting carbon dioxide. Bitcoin mining will always leave carbon footprint.

I'm afraid there's really no alternative story to this. It is futile to counter it as if Bitcoin solves climate change. That would be ridiculous. Instead of creating another story, let's probably focus in explaining why Bitcoin needs to consume energy.

[Baron Amelia]

Impactful, past research has shown that Bitcoin mining emissions could be as high as 63 megatons of carbon dioxide per year

[buwaytress]

How can you all be drinking the same fantasy juice, haha. There is no proven solution to reverse climate change, it is all theoretical (not to mention will take decades to prove). The only thing that seems plausible now is to slow it down, and that is about using less, not more.

Bitcoin may not be the carbon spewing demon people accuse it of, but it is not the magic pill that will unsink the Pacifics... Among other things.

[TheNineClub]

Philosopher and environmentalist Troy Cross has arisen as one of the most prominent scholars making the case that bitcoin mining has certain special properties which make it ideally suited to powering the development of renewable energies.

Check out his interview on the Futurati Podcast, where he discusses his radical proposals for new financial instruments that foster the 'greening' of bitcoin mining.

I don't have the time now to check out the full podcast, so I am kinda confused, is it related to mining being done on renewables, or that somehow BTC mining will help renewables get pushed into more adoption? The second one is highly unlikely, BTC mining is such a small percentage of energy consumption in total that it will not push change for more renewable energy. As for mining switching to renewable energy, that makes sense, but it will do nothing for global climate change. We tend to forget that, in the grand scheme of things, crypto is still really down at the bottom of the list.

[ranochigo]

Renewable energy is not perfectly carbon netural. Renewable energy is better than traditional fossil fuel because it incurs less carbon footprint than those but it doesn't mean that it doesn't incur any at all. Building resources specifically to cater to those operations will inevitably result in even more pollution than not having it at all. This is a rather weak argument because the entire profits of Bitcoin mining cannot possibly impact the development of renewable energy to a noticeable extent.

Besides, miners gravitate to cheaper energy. If coal is cheaper than renewable energy, they will use coal or vice versa. All of the power plants have limited capacity and it would actually make far more sense to give those to the locals rather than for Bitcoin mining operations.

[franky1]

when power companies create a new power plant(renewable) they build not just to meet todays demand but the demand of future decades.
however that future demand is not used on day one. meaning power companies are not getting a full potential of income.
however by regions getting new business to move into the region of the new power plant. it can then fill the spare capacity, which then pays the power company more per year, which then (should) convert that extra income to then reinvest into transitioning other regions to renewable decades sooner.

so incentivizing asic farms of 1000asics move to a region in a couple months of invitation, knowing 1 asic is the equivalent to 2 new homes electric utility. a power company can get as much as 2000 new homes equivalent bill payments without having to wait decades for a region to actually build and house 2000 new families
and when real estate later on demands that power, the region can ask the asic farm to move out by not renewing their electric contracts or de-incentivise them from preferring to stay in the area. yep asic farms are more mobile than real estate

...
alot of people know that 'water cooling' asics cause the water to raise to very high temperatures
this can be used to heat homes or even used to 'boil' sea water to desalinate it as part of a process that can be used for many things.
lowering the cost of desalinating water then allows more water utility
..
investors that buy land to mine for rare minerals. which requires deforesting thousands of acres of land and ruining the 'topsoil' which makes land infertile after the activity, is bad for the environment.
however by investors 'for profit' instead investing in bitcoin. can still earn profit without destroying as much physical land

[Jo_Liu]

Some said Bitcoin mining would ruin evoirnment, while others said it can prevent the environment from being ruined. Take climate change for an example, by using methane produced from landfills and the oil field that would otherwise be flared, bitcoin mining can help reduce 0.15°C of global warming. By using methane produced from landfills and the oil field that would otherwise be flared, bitcoin mining can help reduce 0.15°C of global warming.But slove it? Don't think so. It's like the difference between "try to" and "manage to". Bitcoin mining can ease climate change but not solve it.

[Welsh]

I believe that’s what Tesla’s agenda is! To make the environment more happier by reducing pollution with the help of electric vehicles. At least that’s what it looks like with their behaviour. 

Well, Tesla only cares about profit. I guess you could say that Elon is trying to break the barriers, and become a pioneer in multiple industries, but ultimately I don't think they actually care about climate change as much as they let on. For example, he dropped Bitcoin simply because of the news surrounding it with climate change, yet he knows himself there's multiple industries that are much worse, but he dropped it like a sack of rocks.

Why? Because he wants to keep his green looking reputation when it comes to Tesla. That's the priority, not the truth. He'll continue to do what's best to sell his cars.

[franky1]

I believe that’s what Tesla’s agenda is! To make the environment more happier by reducing pollution with the help of electric vehicles. At least that’s what it looks like with their behaviour.  

Well, Tesla only cares about profit. I guess you could say that Elon is trying to break the barriers, and become a pioneer in multiple industries, but ultimately I don't think they actually care about climate change as much as they let on. For example, he dropped Bitcoin simply because of the news surrounding it with climate change, yet he knows himself there's multiple industries that are much worse, but he dropped it like a sack of rocks.

Why? Because he wants to keep his green looking reputation when it comes to Tesla. That's the priority, not the truth. He'll continue to do what's best to sell his cars.

actually the decision was not about that.

when inflation happens businesses know that the price of real world parts/products will increase in X months. so financially if they are sitting on a huge next egg of value. its savvi business to use that value to hoard parts while its cheap. to then not need to buy parts later.
then using the next years income to not need parts, they can re invest that back into assets that hedge against inflation.

and now you know why many businesses sold some coin. to pre-buy real life products before inflation hits those real life product prices.

as for tesla's business plan
cars are big business. everyone has and needs a car.
there is no point getting into the fossil fuel car business as thats short sighted business doomed to die in a decade or so. so wasting billions to start up a business and factories in fossil based is a waste of money.
renewable is the future so starting an electric company is future proofing the business.
also. sidenode by developing solar, boring, and tesla for the earth transport industry.. is also actually R&D for its space industry
yep. moon buggies, drilling tunnels and solar is the tech space mining requires. so all the investment in the earth transport industry is R&D investment in the space projects, so again double future proof the business viability in the 15-100 year future
you can spot this because of all the tech cross over between his earth projects and space projects. and dare i say it soon he will get into the water collection/desalination projects too, advertised as 'green project' but reality is to gather R&D funds from government grants for its space industry plans

[hugeblack]

It does not need philosophy, but rather energy, regardless of its source. Therefore, as soon as you provide a clean energy source, Bitcoin mining will not say I do not want fossil fuel, just like what cars or trains need.

The issue of energy consumption as a whole is linked to the media exaggeration rather than a real problem.

Do not forget that people paying more and more exorbitant bills to purchase electricity/gas makes the expenditure of electricity under scrutiny.

[uneng]

I'm not sure if bitcoin mining can have a big impact on the development and increasement of renewable sources of energy. In my opinion bitcoin miners' only concern is to run their farms paying the cheapest costs as possible with energy and structure. If it is going to be fossil or renewable energy it really doesn't matter for them.

Bitcoin miners can benefit from green energy advancements without any doubts, but bitcoin mining is unlikely to be benefiting or influencing green energy sector.