Writing in The Conversation on Monday, Professor John Quiggin said the rise of Blockchain itself should not be prevented, as there were other ways to use it that were not as energy intensive.
But he said that Bitcoin itself should be abandoned, describing it as a “collective delusion” with “massively destructive environmental consequences”. ... As the video explains, Bitcoin mining requires a truly phenomenal amount of electricity – currently 32 terawatts a year, according to Digiconomist. To put that in context, Australia uses 224 terawatts of electricity a year, while New Zealand uses 40, according to figures published by the US Central Intelligence Agency. ... Supporters of Bitcoin would like to see it become a global currency to rival the US dollar. But Professor Quiggins warned against this. “Shifting the whole global financial system to Bitcoin would require at least a 200-fold increase, which in turn would entail increasing the world’s electricity use by around 500 per cent,” he said. “With the current threat of climate change looming large globally – this constitutes an unthinkably large amount of energy consumption.” https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2017/12/11/five-reasons-shouldnt-buy-bitcoin/ https://theconversation.com/the-utopian-currency-bitcoin-is-a-potentially-catastrophic-energy-guzzler-88871 Former linker Danny Yee <http://danny.oz.au/blog/> suggests (TIC?) we should boycott any business that accepts Bitcoin. _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
