spud100
Moderator
Registered: 12-2017
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: China’s Great Cryptocurrency Brain Drain
It is just electricity harnessed to Bitcoin. Our ability to derive energy from the sun, should make this issue a short term concern.
|
|
7/24/2021, 7:54 pm
|
Link to this post
PM spud100
Blog
|
Extropia DaSilva
Moderator
Registered: 12-2017
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: China’s Great Cryptocurrency Brain Drain
But the problem is that Bitcoin mining is extremely energy intensive, whereas solar very energy dilute. To give an idea of just how dilute, consider that a nuclear power plant or a gas-fired power plant generates from 2,000 to 6,000 watts per square metre. What is the theoretical best you can get from solar? The theoretical best mind you, not what can be achieved here and now with current-level tech. Ready? 50 watts per square metre. Obviously then, a solar farm would have to cover much, much more acreage than a nuclear or gas-fired power station would, and I dread to think how many hundreds of square miles would need to be littered in photovoltaic cells in order to feed the stupendous energy requirements of bitcoin mining.
If you think we are going to run our societies on renewable energy you have been sold a lie. No renewable energy can or ever will run independently. It takes vast amounts of energy to mine, manufacture, and transport what would have to be gargantuan construction projects, and for that you need fossil fuel or nuclear. And of course you also need one of those on hand for the many occasions when conditions mean you get zero energy from wind and solar.
We certainly won’t be enjoying first world standards of living AND mining bitcoin if we rely on solar alone. We would be lucky to live at the standard of medieval peasantry!
|
|
7/25/2021, 11:13 am
|
Link to this post
PM Extropia DaSilva
Blog
|
