If bitcoin becomes the future, it will destroy the future!

[Fact]

The amount of energy needed is huge, and if it becomes more popular then it would become an environmental nightmare !!!

Digital financial transactions come with a real-world price: The tremendous growth of cryptocurrencies has created an exponential demand for computing power. As bitcoin grows, the math problems computers must solve to make more bitcoin (a process called “mining”) get more and more difficult — a wrinkle designed to control the currency’s supply.

Today, each bitcoin transaction requires the same amount of energy used to power nine homes in the U.S. for one day. And miners are constantly installing more and faster computers. Already, the aggregate computing power of the bitcoin network is nearly 100,000 times larger than the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers combined.

The total energy use of this web of hardware is huge — an estimated 31 terawatt-hours per year. More than 150 individual countries in the world consume less energy annually. And that power-hungry network is currently increasing its energy use every day by about 450 gigawatt-hours, roughly the same amount of electricity the entire country of Haiti uses in a year.

That sort of electricity use is pulling energy from grids all over the world, where it could be charging electric vehicles and powering homes, to bitcoin-mining farms.

In Venezuela, where rampant hyperinflation and subsidized electricity has led to a boom in bitcoin mining, rogue operations are now occasionally causing blackouts across the country. The world’s largest bitcoin mines are in China, where they siphon energy from huge hydroelectric dams, some of the cheapest sources of carbon-free energy in the world. One enterprising Tesla owner even attempted to rig up a mining operation in his car, to make use of free electricity at a public charging station.

In just a few months from now, at bitcoin’s current growth rate, the electricity demanded by the cryptocurrency network will start to outstrip what’s available, requiring new energy-generating plants. And with the climate conscious racing to replace fossil fuel-base plants with renewable energy sources, new stress on the grid means more facilities using dirty technologies. By July 2019, the bitcoin network will require more electricity than the entire United States currently uses. By February 2020, it will use as much electricity as the entire world does today.

This is an unsustainable trajectory. It simply can’t continue.

https://grist.org/article/bitcoin-could-cost-us-our-clean-energy-future/

[adotrulez]

Wow. This was actually a very interesting and enlightening read.

[akmittal]

If Bitcoin become the future, it will not destroy the future. There is always a simple solution of each problem.

[arpappu17]

I don't think so

[IyemRoker]

I don't think so

can you give advice for this?

and in my opinion maybe Altcoins will also have a price because Altcoins is easy to have and the price is cheap and easy to mine.

[Fenix]

In my opinion, there is no need to be afraid of consuming bitcoin. We have non-recoverable reserves of renewable wind and solar energy. Now we are developing more and more advanced technologies for the use of solar screens and batteries. Now almost everyone can create their own solar or windbreaker power station. In addition, it was estimated that banks now consume three times more energy than bitcoin.

[Munareal]

The huge energy consumption to minimg bitcoin is an issue and the world is doing something about it. Soon I believe there will be a solution .

https://www.businessinsider.com/teenage-tech-prodigy-wants-to-fix-bitcoins-growing-energy-problem-2018-5?IR=T

[moonking]

The amount of energy needed is huge, and if it becomes more popular then it would become an environmental nightmare !!!

Digital financial transactions come with a real-world price: The tremendous growth of cryptocurrencies has created an exponential demand for computing power. As bitcoin grows, the math problems computers must solve to make more bitcoin (a process called “mining”) get more and more difficult — a wrinkle designed to control the currency’s supply.

Today, each bitcoin transaction requires the same amount of energy used to power nine homes in the U.S. for one day. And miners are constantly installing more and faster computers. Already, the aggregate computing power of the bitcoin network is nearly 100,000 times larger than the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers combined.

The total energy use of this web of hardware is huge — an estimated 31 terawatt-hours per year. More than 150 individual countries in the world consume less energy annually. And that power-hungry network is currently increasing its energy use every day by about 450 gigawatt-hours, roughly the same amount of electricity the entire country of Haiti uses in a year.

That sort of electricity use is pulling energy from grids all over the world, where it could be charging electric vehicles and powering homes, to bitcoin-mining farms.

In Venezuela, where rampant hyperinflation and subsidized electricity has led to a boom in bitcoin mining, rogue operations are now occasionally causing blackouts across the country. The world’s largest bitcoin mines are in China, where they siphon energy from huge hydroelectric dams, some of the cheapest sources of carbon-free energy in the world. One enterprising Tesla owner even attempted to rig up a mining operation in his car, to make use of free electricity at a public charging station.

In just a few months from now, at bitcoin’s current growth rate, the electricity demanded by the cryptocurrency network will start to outstrip what’s available, requiring new energy-generating plants. And with the climate conscious racing to replace fossil fuel-base plants with renewable energy sources, new stress on the grid means more facilities using dirty technologies. By July 2019, the bitcoin network will require more electricity than the entire United States currently uses. By February 2020, it will use as much electricity as the entire world does today.

This is an unsustainable trajectory. It simply can’t continue.

https://grist.org/article/bitcoin-could-cost-us-our-clean-energy-future/

I actually disagree with this article.  I watched on the news a guy opened up a solar electricity plant in the middle of the desert and used that to power a massive bitcoin farm.  There are a ton of areas in the world where renewable energy is not that expensive, but no one lives there, and transporting it costs a lot.  But with crypto farming, electricity can be used right there.  Anything from windy mountain tops, to desert sun, and even out in the ocean.

[Alcor]

If you mean only a significant energy consumption for mining and the use of bitcoin, then this is not a problem in our time developing technologies for its extraction, using the energy of the sun and wind. I do not see any problems in this. so with the future we all should be fine and bitcoin while in no way it can not hurt.