[adamhp]

I ask this passing no value judgment myself: how do you feel about the ethics of crypto mining?

[meiraleal]

You use the electricity, you pay for it. Why are you implying an ethics issue with that? Someone wasting the same amount of electricity to play games 10 hours a day is doing anything better?

[adamhp]

As I said, I'm not placing any value judgment myself. There has been some debate around the energy consumption of crypto mining. Some are arguing that there is some environmental impact to that. I'm simply asking what this person's thoughts on it are.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/21/the-debate-about-cryptocur...

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56012952

https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-much-energy-does-bitcoin-actuall...

[Trias11]

My thoughts are that any complaints about negative effects of mining on environment is a fud and clickbait.

This is actually driven by financial firms and politicians who have their own agenda in this game.

And no one from that list is going to prioritize care for environment higher than their own profits and powers.

[coralreef]

IMO the source of electricity matters. Generally we should aim to reduce carbon emissions, so if your electricity comes from a coal power plant, then there is greater consequence for the usage compared to renewable energy usage.

[Trias11]

I agree. But consumers has nothing to do with the source of electricity. They're consumers, not producers.

You cannot blame consumer for turning on the light in his place because the source of electricity is not too green.

If we need to change the source of anything from bad to good - that the conversation with the respective governments and politicians.

[coralreef]

Its true you may not get to choose your household electricity source. But that doesn't give you free pass to start consuming as many kilowatts as you want. We make choices with what we consume. You don't get to buy clothes made from slave labour and claim you had nothing to do with it.

I don't get to leave my car idling 24/7, burning gasoline and spitting out toxic fumes. It can't be morally justified with "well I paid for it, mind your own business, go lobby the government to make a law against leaving my car on 24/7".

[Trias11]

Exactly.

Musk and others spread fud about energy usage and I'm sure that made lots of people to guilt trip themselves when they turn on the light in their bedrooms or use computer.

I'm pretty immune to fuds and clickbaits, thus mining never was an issue for me.

[imhoguy]

I think crypto mining can be ethically and ecologically balanced:

- in summer make sure to use solar power, and pump waste heat into pool or hot water tank

- in winter just heat your house, even better if you utilise co2 emission free source

- autumn/spring - mix both

Recuperation of crypto mining waste heat can be a real household saving.

[Trias11]

To answer again - I don't think crypto mining is in any way a question of ethics.

No different from datacenters or cloud computing business.

[relaunched]

Crypto mining also bolsters an economy for criminals - I'd argue that speculation and criminal enterprises are the only two real use cases for cryptocurrency.

Anyone who thinks the environmental impact of crypto is the only ethical problem hasn't dug deep enough.

[coralreef]

Technology bolsters an economy for criminals. The internet created a whole new class of fraudsters, thieves, and extortionists.

They existed before the internet, after the internet, before crypto, and will continue to be around after crypto.

[Trias11]

Crypto mining is solving math equations.

Just like AI.

Lots of fud aroud this is spread by entities who has way more commercial interest than "doing good".

I have absolutely no reservations about it.

I'm all for making energy sources more efficient and green and whatnot.

[ctvo]

Say a possible way to extract gold is to run a hose outside your window and let it wash away the dirt. Sometimes flakes of gold are found after enough dirt has washed away.

It's true that many other people use water in other ways. I'm sure industry uses a lot of water.

Are you comfortable with this approach yourself?

[Trias11]

I'm comfortable with crypto mining.

[ctvo]

I got that already.

Is it only the use of energy that's OK or is it other natural resources like fresh water too? Fresh water is much more renewable than some forms of energy so it's a curious distinction.

[Trias11]

Sorry, not sure I understand your question. What about fresh water?