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by ARandumGuy 1580 days ago
> This is actually a very good thing, especially given it does not care where the energy comes from. If nuclear, solar, window, hydro, and thermal were our dominant energy sources, it would work in that just as well and without bias. Indeed, it actually has active market incentives to utilize clean and renewable energy sources — something the previous financial mechanisms grossly lack.

Bitcoin incentivizes mining using the cheapest source of electricity, not the greenest. Bitcoin miners are more then happy to move their mining rigs to places with cheap coal electricity.

The fact of the matter is, we need to not only move to producing more green power, we need to reduce the global power consumption. Green power still has negative environmental impacts, and there's practical limits to the amount of green power we can generate. Crypto mining is actively hindering efforts to reduce global power consumption, by consuming every spare bit of power it can.

Global warming is an existential threat to human civilization, and will likely negatively impact billions of people, if not everyone. Reducing power consumption is not optional. Bitcoin and POW cryptocurrency are making it harder to do that, and that should be enough to oppose them.