i literally can't stop opening up my bitcoin wallet app and looking - it is like 30 times a day - i'm both happy with the couple sheckles i have and haunted by my not buying in 2012(ish)
bitcoin
So what are people's thoughts on bitcoins energy consumption? It is estimated that mining Bitcoin uses 0.08% of the entire global electricity consumption. That is a fuck tonne to use a technical term and not exactly green. Bitcoin releases 6.25 bitcoin every 10 minutes to miners so the incentive for making even more powerful server farms is overwhelming and a lot of wealth is going straight to Chinese miners. I think it is still the best bet, but can these issues be solved? If not I would think a faster, more efficient crypto will ultimately take over.
Posted by: chupacabra
So what are people's thoughts on bitcoins energy consumption? It is estimated that mining Bitcoin uses 0.08% of the entire global electricity consumption. That is a fuck tonne to use a technical term and not exactly green. Bitcoin releases 6.25 bitcoin every 10 minutes to miners so the incentive for making even more powerful server farms is overwhelming and a lot of wealth is going straight to Chinese miners. I think it is still the best bet, but can these issues be solved? If not I would think a faster, more efficient crypto will ultimately take over.
I don't think that the 21 millionth coin will ever be mined. Considering that the number of Bitcoins created is cut in half every four years, it's not projected that the last coin will be mined until 2140. I can't see us dealing with the issues and inefficiencies of the Bitcoin network for another 120 years. I suspect, much like Ethereum moving to POS (proof of stake), we'll see the process with which new coins are created change.
Current POW (proof of work) mining is a pretty unforgiving game too. Hardware is expensive, the returns diminish almost immediately, and once it becomes unprofitable, the hardware has almost zero resale value. This leads to these weird cycles surrounding process shrinks by chip manufacturers. When there is a node shrink Bitmain, the largest manufacturer of miners, snatches up all of the ASIC chips on the new node. They then build prototype miners, start preselling them in batches and start manufacturing. Once the units are produced, Bitmain operates them privately, taking advantage of the delay in the difficulty rise as network hashrate increases, when the difficulty ramps up and the miners become less profitable, then they release the new generation of mining hardware to the their customers. People who manage to get the first wave of the 'new' hardware enjoy a few weeks, or a few months of fantastic profitability. By the time the third and fourth batch of devices are shipped to customers, difficulty has increased to the point where, in most places in the world, mining is no longer profitable at residential electricity rates. This leads to Bitmain customers flogging their used miners online, most of which never mined enough currency to offset the cost of the device. Those devices are then snapped up by commercial operations who pay less for electricity. It then becomes this crazy cannibalistic circle-jerk where all of the hash power on the network consolidates into a few different spots in the world where operating costs (mostly energy prices) are the lowest.
Bitmain then repeats this process for each algorithm that it produces ASICs for.
This leads to these huge farms in China and Eastern Europe as well as some more interesting solutions like Ocean Falls Blockchain, which set up in the old mill in Ocean Falls and purchased surplus capacity from the hydro dam for next to nothing, or companies like Hive, which is based in Iceland and uses geothermal to power it's miners. These companies are able to operate profitably for longer than most operations and wind up buying their hardware at pretty much clearinghouse prices. These companies then hold out as long as possible until the next node shrink. Rinse. Repeat.
As long as POW is used by the most adopted cryptos, companies like Bitmain exist and node shrinks still push POW mining into day to day profitability, mining will be around, but I doubt it will be Bitcoin for much longer.
Wait, they are mining bitcoin at Ocean Falls? I used to pass by there all the time back in the day when I was fishing and daydream about what you could do with the place and all that power. Needless to say, cryptocurrency mining never entered my mind. I have a cabin in a strata community up past Pemberton with a run of river license that we got grandfathered in. Maybe I should just move up there make my millions. LOL
Great post. I don't know much about the tech but I never see anyone that can explain how it can work as an actual currency with it's current faults and I have never seen anyone say it can be fixed either. It seems like another coin will emerge as the tech leader.
Last edited by: chupacabra on Feb. 10, 2021, 2:25 p.m., edited 1 time in total.
Posted by: chupacabra
Wait, they are mining bitcoin at Ocean Falls? I used to pass by there all the time back in the day when I was fishing and daydream about what you could do with the place and all that power. Needless to say, cryptocurrency mining never entered my mind. I have a cabin in a strata community up past Pemberton with a run of river license that we got grandfathered in. Maybe I should just move up there make my millions. LOL
Great post. I don't know much about the tech but I never see anyone that can explain how it can work as an actual currency with it's current faults and I have never seen anyone say it can be fixed either. It seems like another coin will emerge as the tech leader.
Yeah, they've been mining in Ocean Falls since sometime in 2017 or 2018 (the last big surge). They've installed massive cooling fans etc into one of the old mine buildings and chunk away using surplus capacity from the dam. As far as I know, they have lots of room for expansion too and there is plenty of surplus energy left. Boralex is happy because they get to earn capital for shooting water through some turbines that would otherwise just barf over the spillway, the Blockchain guys are pumped because they pay probably half of what residential rates are.
If you've got free or cheap power, internet and have a space heater or something plugged in keeping the place dry, that's free money as far as I'm concerned. Get rid of the heater and heat the place with a miner. I've mined off and on since 2014 (BTC, Doge, LTC, ETH and a handful of other alt coins), most recently I ran my Ethereum rigs in a six foot tall hydroponics tent with a filtered outside intake sucking in cold outdoor air through ducting, and exhausting the waste heat into my house. Pretty much turned the energy that we would have otherwise spent on baseboards, into Ethereum. It was super profitable considering that I mined the dip (fronted the hydro costs and took advantage of the low difficulty due to low network hashrate, betting that Eth would see at least one more spike in price before switching to POS), it was super enjoyable and easy to maintain if you've got some technical know-how.
I recently sold my used, mined-out, inefficient hardware for a decent profit even though it has paid for itself multiple times over and am planning to price out and build another few, more efficient rigs once this cycle ends and the difficulty and hardware prices drop back down.
Posted by: Schnickelfritz
Posted by: chupacabra
Wait, they are mining bitcoin at Ocean Falls? I used to pass by there all the time back in the day when I was fishing and daydream about what you could do with the place and all that power. Needless to say, cryptocurrency mining never entered my mind. I have a cabin in a strata community up past Pemberton with a run of river license that we got grandfathered in. Maybe I should just move up there make my millions. LOL
Great post. I don't know much about the tech but I never see anyone that can explain how it can work as an actual currency with it's current faults and I have never seen anyone say it can be fixed either. It seems like another coin will emerge as the tech leader.
Yeah, they've been mining in Ocean Falls since sometime in 2017 or 2018 (the last big surge). They've installed massive cooling fans etc into one of the old mine buildings and chunk away using surplus capacity from the dam. As far as I know, they have lots of room for expansion too and there is plenty of surplus energy left. Boralex is happy because they get to earn capital for shooting water through some turbines that would otherwise just barf over the spillway, the Blockchain guys are pumped because they pay probably half of what residential rates are.
If you've got free or cheap power, internet and have a space heater or something plugged in keeping the place dry, that's free money as far as I'm concerned. Get rid of the heater and heat the place with a miner. I've mined off and on since 2014 (BTC, Doge, LTC, ETH and a handful of other alt coins), most recently I ran my Ethereum rigs in a six foot tall hydroponics tent with a filtered outside intake sucking in cold outdoor air through ducting, and exhausting the waste heat into my house. Pretty much turned the energy that we would have otherwise spent on baseboards, into Ethereum. It was super profitable considering that I mined the dip (fronted the hydro costs and took advantage of the low difficulty due to low network hashrate, betting that Eth would see at least one more spike in price before switching to POS), it was super enjoyable and easy to maintain if you've got some technical know-how.
I recently sold my used, mined-out, inefficient hardware for a decent profit even though it has paid for itself multiple times over and am planning to price out and build another few, more efficient rigs once this cycle ends and the difficulty and hardware prices drop back down.
What I don't know I can figure out. Let us know when you are setting up your next system.
Netcoins gunna do good things. Bigg as well..
Posted by: Adam-West
Netcoins gunna do good things. Bigg as well..
Isnt Netcoins just an exchange for now?
They should be the first registered trading platform, since they are the ones helping write the regulations with BCSC.
Posted by: gearwhore
i literally can't stop opening up my bitcoin wallet app and looking - it is like 30 times a day - i'm both happy with the couple sheckles i have and haunted by my not buying in 2012(ish)
Have you cashed in yet? $72K and counting is pretty good depending when you first bought. Even 2018 prices back when this thread started are looking good, never mind 2012.
Posted by: chupacabra
There is still a lot of buzz on Reddit of people wanting to buy Gamestop. I think there is going to a lot of sad broke teens when this is all over.
ok boomer.
Elon Musk has become the world's biggest crypto manipulator. One tweet and Doge is off the moon.
Posted by: syncro
Posted by: gearwhore
i literally can't stop opening up my bitcoin wallet app and looking - it is like 30 times a day - i'm both happy with the couple sheckles i have and haunted by my not buying in 2012(ish)
Have you cashed in yet? $72K and counting is pretty good depending when you first bought. Even 2018 prices back when this thread started are looking good, never mind 2012.
i don't have enough coin to get excited until it 10x 's again - I'm not selling any until at least 2030
Posted by: tungsten
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/02/26/bitcoin-and-baseball-cards/
slow clap. I pretty much agree on this one. Between the price fluctuations, the slow speeds and the high energy use I can't see Bitcoin becoming a currency. The speculation is killing it.
I have been looking at a crypto called Nano. It is fast, efficient, and doesn't require any mining. I have no clue which crypto will take off as currency but I think one of them will and it will be similar to Nano. It is too attractive for people to ignore as currency once adopted, but whatever it is will have to avoid getting gobbled up by whales before it gets used by regular people or nobody is going to ever want to take it for payment. The lease example in this article is the perfect reason why.
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