
Bitcoin’s energy usage is huge – we can't afford to ignore it - dsr12
https://theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/17/bitcoin-electricity-usage-huge-climate-cryptocurrency
======
gervase
More commentary found here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16173345](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16173345)

------
modeless
> it thinks that power consumption of mining will fall over time as better
> technologies are used for miners

No, no, no! _Why_ doesn't anybody ever mention the _real_ reason why power
consumption of mining will fall?

The amount of the block reward _halves_ every couple of years and soon becomes
negligible. This is guaranteed and inevitable. There will still be mining
rewards, but they will all come from _transaction fees_ , the amount of which
is chosen by the people making the transactions. So the people using the
system will be the ones paying for the electricity used, and obviously they
aren't going to pay for all of the electricity in the world. The sky will not
fall.

------
mailxplorer
January the 17th. Vaguely relevant though, even now.

