this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2024
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I haven't looked into crypto in years. My main problem is the power consumption and environmental impact from most cryptos. I do like the idea of having an online currency outside the control of governments though especially when they become authoritarian.
Since a crypto mine can be set up pretty much anywhere, there's electricity. You can get sources that would otherwise be unused, such as flaring natural gas or methane from garbage dumps, etc. as well as heating your home during the winter and making some money back instead of just wasting it all in heat.
I guess it depends how mining for that currency works. Traditional POW for example will result in lots of energy that does not need to be used. I know a few years ago POS was used by some to be more energy efficient. It has been a few years since I gave up on crypto due to environmental concerns though I am sure a lot of progress has been made since then.
Now, I will say straight out that I am a much bigger fan of proof of work than proof of stake in order to keep the system decentralized and honest. However, Monero at least is completely CPU mined and ASIC devices do not exist for it because it's purposely been made to keep them out.
I am guessing yours and most people's concerns with proof of work is not necessarily the power use, but the power use in such a concentrated area. And that is avoided with Monero not having ASIC devices. Because people are doing it on their desktop computers while they are taking a shower.
My problem with the power use is has coal/ fossil fuels been used that would have not been used otherwise. If being ASIC resistant leads to less coal being burnt because not everywhere uses renewable energy than it is better than the alternative of having coal hungry ASIC machines burning through resources.
That is going to be highly dependent on location. ASIC miners go for wherever the power is cheapest because they are big companies and are trying to turn a profit. Whereas people mining Monero are using their CPUs on their computers that they already have in their bedroom.
I've heard that argument before, but i struggle with it. I do think regular banking, with all their buildings and people, clerks all the way to central banking, wasting entire lives on it, have a far larger total emissions.
I guess you would need to factor in the building electricity to keep the lights on etc. Though as far as I know bank transactions don't involve highly powered machines trying to 1 up each other to solve a transaction resulting in more power being used. Tbh idk how much power that would all total to.
Lighting doesn't matter me much. Heating is usually the environmentally dominant factor in a building I've learned.
Instead you've thousands of lives being wasted on deciding whether to raise or lower interest rates. A fair comparison would take that into account, too.
That makes sense especially since LED lights can save a lot more energy than traditional lights while heating would still be more of a problem. I am not really qualified to talk about interest rates so I cant really comment on that.