this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
988 points (97.1% liked)

Technology

59421 readers
3519 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 126 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Electricity is too cheap for these uses.

[–] [email protected] 105 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Why is commercial power so cheap and residential so expensive? We could fix two problems by balancing that back.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Because companies > people in the eyes of the state.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

It depends on which state, which is even more sad.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (3 children)

My understanding is tha some commercial/industrial users will get a highly variable tariff. This may be cheaper much of the time, but can get ridiculously expensive at times of high demand.

The difference is that a bitcoin farmer can shut down at those expensive times, but a home user still needs to heat/cool their house, run their fridge etc, so the savings cancel out. Because of this, averaging the costs works out easier/better for most home consumers

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 120 points 9 months ago (3 children)

They don't produce anything except some numbers. A total waste of energy. I had to laugh when this guy I know who is very "progressive" and environmentally concerned got pissy when I pointed out how much energy was wasted on bitcoin mining just because he was into it.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (3 children)

My comment here is a much better use of energy

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Recording my next fart would be a better use of energy than Bitcoin.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Right this is the fundamental problem. There needs to be some value to the Blockchain application which the crypto tokens support beyond just token speculation.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 97 points 9 months ago (124 children)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (3 children)

More like fuck crypto mining. There are cryptos that dont need mining.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (4 children)

If there's no demand for a particular crypto then people mining it can't sell it and go out of business. People mine this stuff because other people will pay them for it.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (123 replies)
[–] [email protected] 74 points 9 months ago (38 children)

JFC how long do we have to wait for a carbon tax

load more comments (38 replies)
[–] [email protected] 67 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There is no good reason why this isn't illegal.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not a good reason, but money.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not even real money, tech bro phantom bullshit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 60 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Crypto is the digital coal of our times.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 9 months ago (25 children)

Whoever Satoshi was, I wonder how he's responding to the thought that he's personally contributed more to global warming than the average billionaire.

load more comments (25 replies)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Modern day gold rush.

Digging up more and more dirt for diminishing returns while destroying the environment.

Bitcoin using more and more power for essentially the same.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago (16 children)

You'd think with all of the money they're pulling in, they'd invest in solar panels or something to lower their overhead.

Or am I making the mistake of approaching the situation with common sense?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's Bitcoin, of course common sense isn't involved.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (15 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (61 children)

Misleading title - the problem is not "crypto", it's pretty much all Bitcoin and the people against the change in the consensus mechanism. Out of the top ~~10~~ 9 coins in market cap, Bitcoin is the only one using proof of work, which demands such high energy requirements.

load more comments (61 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (15 children)

Ultimately, mining should be banned from the surface of Earth. Let miners build orbital solar panel infrastructure close to the Sun where power is plentiful. See Bitcoin developer Peter Todd's 2017-09-10 presentation on the subject (transcript).

Edit: Fixed URL. Edit2; Add transcript link.

load more comments (15 replies)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Destroying the environment and not even for real money

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

Just a PSA that the second biggest cryptocurrency by market cap (ETH) is no longer proof of work, and in the process, reduced their power consumption by ~98%.

load more comments
view more: next ›