Bitcoin Will Save Our Earth

Bitcoin Magazine ^ | 3-25-21 | Evan Bayless

[aMorePerfectUnion]

By using energy to validate transactions in a way that is independent of any existing grid or source, Bitcoin mining will save the climate.

It’s in vogue to think that Bitcoin is accelerating the climate crisis.

The common argument is that Bitcoin uses lots of energy, which must mean more carbon emissions, so as a result, it’s ruining the climate. Of course, critics also seem enraged at Bitcoin itself, believing it doesn’t do anything useful beyond facilitating a casino for Reddit memelords and “libertarian nerds” to get rich in. To these critics, Bitcoin is a totally useless, degenerate system that will end up consuming all energy on the planet in 18 months if we don’t stop it right now.

While this fatalist prediction might succeed in earning clout on Twitter, it is fortunately far from the truth. Incredibly far. In fact, if I may do some clout chasing of my own: the prediction that Bitcoin will destroy the climate is the literal opposite of what Bitcoin is likely to do.

Bitcoin will save our Earth.

By the end of this read, you will understand how Bitcoin uses energy to validate transactions, and how this is driving more efficient energy usage and lower emissions for the entire global energy grid, not just the Bitcoin system. Why Does Bitcoin Need Energy?

This is the first part that confuses many people, because Bitcoin is a novel type of monetary technology which has no analogue. Importantly, Bitcoin is not Visa or PayPal — and it uses energy for different purposes.

Bitcoin requires energy in order to secure the history of transactions. A recipient of bitcoin can reasonably trust that the bitcoin they’ve received is really theirs because miners expended energy, and therefore incurred an unavoidable real-world cost, in order to fit that transaction into a block of transactions and hitch it onto the “blockchain.” We call this strong assurance that a transaction is completed “finality.”

If you take out that energy expenditure, there is no cost associated with changing a transaction. The original sender could decide later to change their transaction so it points to another one of their wallets instead of your wallet. Poof! Now you never got paid, or maybe the money is in two places at once. That just won’t fly in a monetary or payments system. This little copy-paste problem is known in nerd circles as the “double-spend problem.” Bitcoin is the only system which solves this problem at scale without a trusted third party, and energy usage is the key component of that solution.

The more energy that Bitcoin consumes, the more cost is incurred in securing the chain. More security means an “attack” on the history of transactions is more expensive — so expensive that double spending is uneconomical or downright impossible. The more cost incurred to secure the chain after your transaction, the more “final” that transaction is.

> More energy consumption = more security.

Many critics argue that the Bitcoin energy consumption per transaction compared to a Visa payment proves the horrible inefficiency of the Bitcoin network. This plays on our assumption that a “transaction” is always something small — like buying a cup of coffee. However, a “transaction” can also be a group of these smaller transactions — a “batch” — so that one “transaction” on a payment system like Bitcoin or Fedwire can actually represent millions of coffee purchases.

Critics of Bitcoin’s energy use also miss the key point of why Bitcoin uses energy. Bitcoin is not just a payments system — it is also an entirely new form of scarce, divisible, portable commodity — aka, money.

> Bitcoin consumes energy primarily to ensure the scarcity of Bitcoins and finality of transactions without a trusted third party.

Other monetary systems, like the U.S. dollar, achieve scarcity and finality — key properties of money — through trust. You and I need to trust politicians and bankers to be good stewards of the monetary system. We entrust with them the power to literally create currency out of thin air, and they have the power to reverse or block transactions. Most of these gatekeepers are not elected officials either — they are the chairmen and employees of central banks and commercial banks. And they create new money and allocate it as they see fit, fiendishly. New money is created every time a government sells bonds to its central bank or banks extend loans — which is often. Especially in 2020.

[EXCERPT - MORE AT LINK AND WORTH FINISHING ARTICLE]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

If YOU would like to be on a CRYPTO PING LIST, please pm me.

The Crypto Ping List covers the following:

Bitcoin
Ethereum
Other coins built on the Ethereum blockchain mining
etc.

Thanks! For it - or ag'in it, it'll be a wild ride.

There has been much written about the energy usage of Bitcoin. This article reveals the other side and is worth reading in it's entirety.

Hat tip to ConservativeDude for the idea to post!

AND WORTH NOTING THAT CONSERVATIVEDUDE WAS THE FIRST TO JOIN THE CRYPTO PING LIST!🔥

[aMorePerfectUnion]

PING!

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Conclusions from article...

Bitcoin may just be a casino for degenerate gamblers, but this casino serves as the buyer of last resort for electricity produced everywhere in the world. The positive impact of the presence of a buyer of last resort in the energy market is hard to overstate.

As Bitcoin disseminates through the world, Bitcoin mining will:

Increase energy efficiency by utilizing wasted energy
Finance the exploration of “stranded” (and often renewable) power sources
Push the learning and adoption curves for renewable energy

That sounds a whole hell of a lot more environmentally friendly than paper straws.

[butlerweave]

Math will save the World ?

[ScubaDiver]

I’m not a bitcoin hater, in fact I own a not insignificant amount of it myself. However, this author slays some ENORMOUS straw men to quiet crypto critics.

[SaxxonWoods]

Bitcoin will be under the control of governments soon and all the fun will be over.

[ConservativeMind]

One could say electric cars accomplish the same thing, while electronic cash movement gets the moves performed without needing massive amounts of energy that Bitcoin does.

Proving that unknowable persons previously touched a dollar equivalent in Bitcoin, cash, or electronic means, is not useful.

This article simply says that Bitcoin wastes tons of energy, so it incentives finding more energy.

[al baby]

Where do you keep it ?

[Truthoverpower]

Wrong

Jesus will

The love of money is the root of all evil

Eternal life and happiness will only come through understanding the profound teachings of Jesus Christ

Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers

[I want the USA back]

This, coming from Bitcoin Magazine, has no credibility. Bitcoin will not save the Earth.

[Susquehanna Patriot]

Thanks. From what was in the article ...

“The more cost incurred to secure the chain after your transaction, the more “final” that transaction is.”

The words “more “final” that transaction action is” is an admission there is risk - the transaction isn’t “final”, only that it is “more final” (whatever that means) than before the energy was consumed. So how close to final would my transaction actually be? How does one discount the market value, i.e. my risk based on the not knowing how close one is to “final”? After all, 100% secure coins should have higher value than coins that haven’t had enough energy consumed on them, no?

I ask then, to make all Bitcoin transactions “final”, what is the total amount of energy to be consumed to acheive 100% security? And will any energy be needed after total security is reached?

How useful is bitcoin for purchasing groceries and gas?

Bottom line, without the existence government issued currencies, bitcoin really has “no value”. Just looked up its value - it’s all quoted in $dollars. Get in (on the scheme) before (it explodes) you miss out. Bitcoin holders must be happy there are world currencies out there, else it might be valued euphorically in Dutch tulip bulbs.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Wrong Jesus will

God will eventually create a new heaven and new earth. That is not what this article is about...

The love of money is the root of all evil

The solution is not to love it.

Eternal life and happiness will only come through understanding the profound teachings of Jesus Christ

Agree!

Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers

IN THE TEMPLE, because they made a House of Worship into a market.

[ScubaDiver]

Coinbase. There a better solutions out there. But, it’s all I’ve ever used and don’t feel like learning anything else. Plus, coinbase has a convenient debit card feature.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Just looked up its value - it’s all quoted in $dollars.

Except in other countries where it is priced in the world's major currencies.

I ask then, to make all Bitcoin transactions “final”, what is the total amount of energy to be consumed to acheive 100% security? And will any energy be needed after total security is reached?

And that should be asked of the banking system too then...

[CodeToad]

That was some of the most silly propaganda with twisted logic and lies. A liberal wrote this, right?

First off, there is no global warming. At all. None.

Second, mining bitcoins takes a massive amount of energy, so much so that bitcoin mining companies have gone to northern Canada for cooling purposes.

Third, there was no evidence presented, no facts, no math, to state bitcoin was more energy efficient to process transactions.

This propaganda gets a flat F for a grade.

[PIF]

And China’s CCP loves bitcoin to the tune of creating 80% of the world’s bitcoin from their environmentally friendly high-sulfur coal-fired power plants that they are building like hotcakes. By burning low-cost high-sulfur coal these plants run full blast, ensuring the generation of the most bitcoins at the lowest possible expense with the highest and wisest use of resources.

These plants are so environmentally friendly that they do not need the onerous regulations that US plants require ... its just shovel that coal, and burn baby burn; the dense smoke emitted creates a sky with a wonderful deep red (which in China symbolizes luck, joy, and happiness) sunrises and sunsets that last all day long!

This greatly increases the health of the locals who cough all waking hours, thus clearing their lungs of the dreaded US made covid. Tourists love the continual sounds of hawking and spitting everywhere; it so sonically colorful!

Bitcoins are so much beloved by the CCP that the more powerful among them laugh all the way to the bank they own, while their agents plant more CCP approved propaganda for the Western press lap-dogs, like the above story. Yes! More bitcoin, please!

[aMorePerfectUnion]

I think it was meant to respond to the climate alarmists who are making these claims.

Since their data is falsified, a high level is all that is needed.

Rather than discuss BTC in isolation... how does BTC energy usage compare to:

Banking
Airlines
Travel
Manufacturing
Mobile phone industry
The internet

Etc?

Of course the alarmists would like to do away with every capitalist industry anyway.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

And China’s CCP loves bitcoin to the tune of creating 80% of the world’s bitcoin from their environmentally friendly high-sulfur coal-fired power plants that they are building like hotcakes.

Good news!

NASA says we entered a solar minimum. We'll need the heat.

[Susquehanna Patriot]

“Where do you keep it ?”

You don’t.

And I’ve read there is a big permanent problem if you drop your coins by losing your password. Bitcoin seems to require faith and timing becomes very very important.

I thought trying to understand the Federal Reserve System was difficult... bitcoin seems worse. If you have ever read technical instructions written by technical people - that’s what bitcoin articles tend to be ... I am supposed to go along and pretend I am not stupid, when the writers can’t write in a manner that can be understood. If you aren’t willing to lose your money, or wealth however you keep it for something the average person can’t understand, you might be better off in 3 card montey on the wrong side of the tracks played on the back of a suitcase, than playing with bitcoin. (