On 26/11/17 05:06 PM, Alan Sondheim wrote: > > https://powercompare.co.uk/bitcoin/ > > One question, why does it take so much power?
Security. "Miners" are machines that compete to be rewarded in Bitcoin for securing the Bitcoin network. They do this by gathering up transactions broadcast to the network every ten minutes or so into blocks, making sure they all follow the rules of the system, then solving a difficult mathematical puzzle to prove their good faith. The difficulty of that puzzle is set by an algorithm that measures the average time of the last two weeks worth of blocks, and tries to ensure that it will average out to ten minutes over the next two. Because Bitcoin has value, people compete for the block rewards. Lots of people. Lots and lots and lots of people. With lots and lots and lots and lots of ever more specialized computers. This means that the difficulty algorithm keeps making the puzzle more difficult. And so it takes more computing power to solve it. Which takes more energy. This is the "proof of work" system. It is not a waste of electricity, it is the cost of securing the network. It is possible to try to create proof of work algorithms that are more energy efficient. Or to use different security systems altogether, for example "proof of stake", that use much less energy. But these are currently less popular than Bitcoin. So if people are worried about blockchain energy usage they should make sure to use hydro-electric or solar power for mining. ;-) > Excuse my ignorance. No it's weird. It's an effect of the key technological breakthrough of Bitcoin: cheating and using economic incentives to solve a computer science problem. > And do you think this will affect future value? It secures that future value. There was a hilarious article that extended the Bitcoin energy consumption curve to show that in a couple of years it will consume all the energy on the planet. If that happens its value will be absolute for a single moment before the economy and human society collapses... - Rob. _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
