And what will happen to the power grid?
This may seem of small consequence, but, say, the foreclosure crisis in the U.S. wrecked a huge number of lives, and I keep thinking about the South Sea Bubble and Tulip Mania. But those examples might be way off the mark. -
On Mon, 27 Nov 2017, Pall Thayer via NetBehaviour wrote:
That's a good question, Jaka. Rob, how will miners be rewarded once all of the coins have been mined? On Mon, Nov 27, 2017 at 3:20 AM Jaka ?eleznikar <[email protected]> wrote: I'm not properly acquainted too - how the security of the Bitcoin network will be achieved once all the Bitcoins are "mined"? best, Jaka On 27. 11. 2017 04:56, Rob Myers wrote: > 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 _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour -- P Thayer, Artist http://pallthayer.dyndns.org
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