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by UweSchmidt 4313 days ago
Well, when "mining" happens at the break-even point, the value of Bitcoin represents the amount of money that was transfered from the real economy to ..this.

Since "waste" is a loaded term, let's call it "the cost of Bitcoin".

Current market cap is 6.7 billion $, with 13.2 million of a total of 21 million btc mined. Early "mining" was very cheap, but now costs are only going up (barring any surprising breakthroughs in computing).

Anyone care to speculate the total cost of Bitcoin?
1 comments
Sambdala 4313 days ago
3,600 * <Current Cost per Bitcoin> is probably a pretty good approximation of the daily cost.

Since Bitcoin is currently ~$500, that's ~$1.8mm per day.

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imaginenore 4313 days ago
It's not a cost. They spend electricity and get money back. It's basically an indirect currency exchange. They obviously do it because the resulting conversion rate is slightly better than the market rate.
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UweSchmidt 4313 days ago
No doubt people get "money back". Contrast this however with a system where "numbers" (= the new "Randomcurrency") were randomly, or evenly distributed among the general population, which could be done basically for free.

Compared to that, there is a cost, if you will. n powerplants had to be built, or x tons coal had to be burnt to do all the calculations. Does that make sense?

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