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The excellent student run newspaper, The Michigan Daily, has an article about the necessity of regulating Bitcoin. "Mining" even a single Bitcoin now burns as much electricity as a family would use during about 50 days.
Local grids physically cannot withstand this outrageous consumption of electricity. In foreign countries — where mining farm clustering is more severe — local governments suspect Bitcoin mining farms as the cause of power outages and complete blackouts. Entire neighborhoods are facing power shortages or complete outages as a result of energy grid strain. So far, the reliance on domestic energy has not had adverse effects, but it is only a matter of time before these blackouts begin to take place in the United States, too.
Despite the fatal externality flaws in Bitcoin mining, the industry is left unchecked in the absence of federal or international regulation on its use. Unfortunately, without restrictions on the amount of mining that can occur, there is no clear plateau to the electricity consumption of these constantly updating hardware systems.
Previously:
(2025) Bitcoin Mining is Making People Sick
(2025) The Guy Who Accidentally Threw Away $700 Million in Bitcoin Wants to Buy the Landfill to Find It
(2024) How A 27-Year-Old Busted The Myth Of Bitcoin's Anonymity
(Score: 2, Informative) by DadaDoofy on Sunday November 30, @11:46AM (1 child)
Yes, yes we desperately need bitcoin control - brought to you by the same people who want to regulate farts. Meanwhile, the AI elephant in the room is never mentioned. If the concern is really about power consumption, rather than a rehash of the same old tired class warfare, hate-the-rich narrative, let's focus on the actual problem.
"According to estimates, Bitcoin mining uses 120 TWh of energy annually. Bitcoin mining consumed 0.4% of global electricity last year, which is a massive figure. Analysts expect AI to outperform Bitcoin miners in energy demand by 2027, shifting 20% of their power capacity to AI."
"Curiously, while crypto mining relies more on renewable energy sources-as it gets approximately 70% of its energy consumption from green sources-AI data centers mostly depend on fossil fuels."
https://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-vs-ai-whos-draining-the-power-grid-faster/ [bitcoinist.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gnuman on Monday December 01, @11:52AM
So, you have TRHEE distinct point here,
* 0.4% of total electricity usage is Bitcoin (120TWh)
* 20% of that they want to shift to AI by 2027 (so 24TWh from bitcoint to AI)
* AI to use more electricity than Bitcoin by 2027
Why are you highlighting 20% and 0.4% when they are unrelated to each other?
PS. Bitcoin should be banned as it's only used as a pyramid scheme and basically for criminal purposes. China has made correct decision there. But that's just my opinion and nothing to do with regulating farts :laugh: