
Why the Biggest Bitcoin Mines Are in China - amaks
https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/why-the-biggest-bitcoin-mines-are-in-china
======
ballenf
The pictures in this article and details of power consumption make the
inherent proof-of-work approach very hard to defend.

The counter argument is that the resources required to secure, print and
transport traditional currencies is probably still orders of magnitude
greater. But on a MWh per $-equivalent flow, Bitcoin is probably orders of
magnitude less efficient.

Would be great to see someone with actual numbers do calculations of that sort
to watch trends over time. I wonder if the W / $-value-transaction is going
down or up over time? That is, the energy spent vs. rate of flow of currency
(as a rough measure of its utility), denominated in dollars.

