<story><title>SolarBatteryBitcoin</title><url>https://github.com/ARKInvest/SolarBatteryBitcoin</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lottin</author><text>Unlike Bitcoin, the Snapchat data centre isn&amp;#x27;t designed to waste as much electricity as fast as it possibly can.  Bitcoin is designed to be wasteful, so don&amp;#x27;t be surprised if people takes issue with that.</text></item><item><author>erentz</author><text>&amp;gt; that every Joule that is used for bitcoin mining is a Joule that wasn&amp;#x27;t used somewhere else.&lt;p&gt;This applies to so many things. Snapchat data center? YouTube using gigawatts to process and stream cat videos? On and on. It’s really hard to control what people do with energy. Much better to focus on ensuring its priced correctly and all it’s externalities are properly included in that price. Then we don’t have to involve ourselves in moral debates about what’s a valid or invalid use.</text></item><item><author>barathr</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d like to believe that something like this is possible, but I just don&amp;#x27;t get how this gets around the fact that every Joule that is used for bitcoin mining is a Joule that wasn&amp;#x27;t used somewhere else.  Even if many Joules of renewable power get wasted during periods of overproduction (mid-day in the summer in California), other more worthwhile loads could be shifted to use that power, because today it&amp;#x27;s negative-priced during such periods.  If bitcoin soaks up that power, it won&amp;#x27;t be negative-priced, and other loads won&amp;#x27;t be moved to use it, and they&amp;#x27;ll use power from non-renewable sources during some other time of day.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s all sorts of demand shifting that can be done. Most articles talk about washers and dryers, and certainly that&amp;#x27;s one smaller load, but also EV charging, pre-cooling of buildings during the summer (run the AC in houses full blast during the middle of the day so there&amp;#x27;s no need to run it in the early evening), etc.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>csomar</author><text>This is purely subjective. Bitcoin&amp;#x27;s spent electricity goes to increase security of the network (whether one&amp;#x27;s care about the network, is the subjective part). But the electricity is not being turned into heat for no purpose and then ejected into the atmosphere.</text></comment>
<story><title>SolarBatteryBitcoin</title><url>https://github.com/ARKInvest/SolarBatteryBitcoin</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lottin</author><text>Unlike Bitcoin, the Snapchat data centre isn&amp;#x27;t designed to waste as much electricity as fast as it possibly can.  Bitcoin is designed to be wasteful, so don&amp;#x27;t be surprised if people takes issue with that.</text></item><item><author>erentz</author><text>&amp;gt; that every Joule that is used for bitcoin mining is a Joule that wasn&amp;#x27;t used somewhere else.&lt;p&gt;This applies to so many things. Snapchat data center? YouTube using gigawatts to process and stream cat videos? On and on. It’s really hard to control what people do with energy. Much better to focus on ensuring its priced correctly and all it’s externalities are properly included in that price. Then we don’t have to involve ourselves in moral debates about what’s a valid or invalid use.</text></item><item><author>barathr</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d like to believe that something like this is possible, but I just don&amp;#x27;t get how this gets around the fact that every Joule that is used for bitcoin mining is a Joule that wasn&amp;#x27;t used somewhere else.  Even if many Joules of renewable power get wasted during periods of overproduction (mid-day in the summer in California), other more worthwhile loads could be shifted to use that power, because today it&amp;#x27;s negative-priced during such periods.  If bitcoin soaks up that power, it won&amp;#x27;t be negative-priced, and other loads won&amp;#x27;t be moved to use it, and they&amp;#x27;ll use power from non-renewable sources during some other time of day.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s all sorts of demand shifting that can be done. Most articles talk about washers and dryers, and certainly that&amp;#x27;s one smaller load, but also EV charging, pre-cooling of buildings during the summer (run the AC in houses full blast during the middle of the day so there&amp;#x27;s no need to run it in the early evening), etc.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hparadiz</author><text>Bitcoin isn&amp;#x27;t designed to waste energy. It&amp;#x27;s designed to auto regulate an increasingly more difficult mathamatical formula which is itself entirely separate from energy. It&amp;#x27;s humans that are essentially throwing electricity at it due to the high reward for doing so. Once equilibrium is reached there is no reason to throw more energy at it.</text></comment>