Bitcoin doesn't waste energy. Bitcoin consumes energy waste.
The global market for adding bitcoin blocks is as competitive as it is possible to get. No barriers to entry, no one even has to know who or where you are. As such only miners who can secure the cheapest energy survive.
Excess hydro capacity in China during rainy season; capturing flared gas from shale oil fields in the US; geothermal in Iceland; any source of stranded or wasted energy.. bitcoin mining will soak it up.
Bitcoin mining using fossil fuels is simply not cost competitive.
This "#hashes => #GWh => #tonnes CO2", is broken logic full of unsubstantiated assumptions made by bitcoin haters.
I think both can be true. Specifically, Bitcoin mining would itself encourage greater energy production; it doesn't merely skim off the excess energy, as you suggest. It generates its own market forces, it's not merely floating above them.
While that's plausible, I'd still agree with the parent comment in general -- it's true that it's not cost-effective to mine using fossil fuels (you would lose money doing it), and this alone requires a different way of talking about the issue.
The global market for adding bitcoin blocks is as competitive as it is possible to get. No barriers to entry, no one even has to know who or where you are. As such only miners who can secure the cheapest energy survive.
Excess hydro capacity in China during rainy season; capturing flared gas from shale oil fields in the US; geothermal in Iceland; any source of stranded or wasted energy.. bitcoin mining will soak it up.
Bitcoin mining using fossil fuels is simply not cost competitive.
This "#hashes => #GWh => #tonnes CO2", is broken logic full of unsubstantiated assumptions made by bitcoin haters.