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Bitcoin mining generates substantial electronic waste: study

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The sooner this speculation driven bubble bursts or gets regulated out of existence the better.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

The largest social mine on the planet after Bitcoin. 23 million miners and going to start shopping ...

If anyone interested

Download it from play store

https://minepi.com/poocha

And join with this ID "Poocha"

0 ( +0 / -0 )

BitCoin is a terrible example of a digital currency. It will do real harm to the development of digital currencies if governments regulate them specifically in opposition to BitCoin.

There is no need to 'mine' a digital currency, and it can easily be pegged to a national currency.

Example. You purchase US$100 worth of digital currency from a provider. They charge a small fee and bank your $100 in a US bank. Your digital currency is recorded in an encrypted digital wallet on your device/PC. Some or all of it can be backed up to a memory card, stored in a compatible bank account or moved to another wallet when you buys something, as you wish. It is always worth the same as the amount in banknotes, when you paid for it, allowing individuals in countries with dodgy currency to save and pay in (in this example) USD.

This digital currency circulates via (distributed) wallets. The provider has no knowledge of movement, as with physical coinage. At any point, any amount from your digital currency stash can be converted back into USD, again with a small fee - the provider's profit. This USD is paid to you to your bank, to a PayPal account, or even as a cheque. All the digital currency in circulation is underwritten by the provider's holding account and pegged to a national currency - in this example, USD. Purchases of and cashings-in of the digital currency are recorded and can be examined by LEAs with a court order, but the digital currency can circulate globally like coinage.

Simple. No exchanges, no exchange hacks, no transaction charges, no interest (so it is Islamic-banking compliant), no mining, no impact on the environment, no gambling-level changes in value, no gatekeepers (a role held by MasterCard, Visa and PayPal at the behest of governments) and global.

Can someone just please do this, so we can move on with one or more global digital currencies. The start-up costs would be minimal.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Alex de Vries noted that this was "extremely short compared to any" other electronic devices such as iPhones.

An iphone is a consumer device and iphones come out every year.... really not a good comparision .

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Example. You purchase US$100 worth of digital currency from a provider. They charge a small fee and bank your $100 in a US bank. 

How would that be different from just opening an account with that US bank? Honest question. I'm a little confused by digital currencies.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

There is no need to 'mine' a digital currency, and it can easily be pegged to a national currency.

People argue this point, as if somehow bitcoin is going to go away. Even if the above point is right, so? There will still be bitcoin.

You purchase US$100 worth of digital currency from a provider. They charge a small fee and bank your $100 in a US bank.

The power of cryptocurrencies is that the remove dependence upon banks, putting people's money in the hands of the people. Now you're advocating for somehow bringing the banks into it. What's the point of a cryptocurrency if the banks are part of it?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Blockchain is the most inefficient way to verify the legitimacy of currency transactions imaginable. All those calculations and energy use just to prove a transaction took place. I shake my head in wonder at the wastefulness.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Blockchain is the most inefficient way to verify the legitimacy of currency transactions imaginable. All those calculations and energy use just to prove a transaction took place. I shake my head in wonder at the wastefulness.

The energy usage is terrible.

But people talk like we could do something about it. They don't seem to realize how a decentralized system works.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Bitcoining alone those 30,700 tons of waste… And then they tell me I shouldn’t use a straw in my drink and by a plastic bag for my shopping if I insist in having one to get my things anyhow out of the supermarket. They must have been released from a forensics, these crazy psychos.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's funny how people who has no clue about crypto, blockchain, PoW, PoS, etc. Come here and write nonsense like if they knew what they're talking about. Blockchain is the future and everyone will be using it without even knowing it.

Personally I have benefited a lot from it, crypto allowed me to buy a house for my family and flip the bird to my boss and go independent.

It may generate rubbish but the gains are insane so who cares.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Really ?

I wonder why it has taken so long, for so many to figure this out ?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It may generate rubbish but the gains are insane so who cares.

A succinct statement of almost all that is wrong with business and people engaged in business. No conscience, no care for what their acts do to others. Others have to suffer the negative effects of the rubbish blockchain creates. You impose a cost on others from the pollution and waste of blockchain. If you had to pay the full cost of your activity, meaning cleaning up the waste stream it creates you wouldn't make the gains you make now, might not make any gains. Learn some things about negative externalities. There is a rich economic literature on the subject if you wish to read how you are imposing costs on others by your activities.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The thing is, this large energy usage will only drop over the next 10 years, at which point 97% of bitcoins will have been mined, and the massive profits from mining them will be gone. The closer we get to that point, two things happen:

1) The higher the risk in investing in new infrastructure to mine the coins

2) The lower the payout for mining those coins (due to "halving" - google it)

As the economic incentive to mining loses its luster, and the money to be made from it is limited to the transaction fees, the number of computers processing bitcoin transactions will drop significantly, and we will not see this massive power usage we see now.

So while the current output is not good, it's a temporary issue, and one that literally cannot be changed even if someone has a problem with it due to the decentralization of cryptocurrencies.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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