15th September 2021 > > Power usage issues.

tl;dr

It is a complicated picture surrounding the power usage of BTC.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

BTC solidly treading water in the mid-40s.

Occasional Series – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who?)

Assuming she/he/they is a schleb, the world’s press has enthusiastically reported her turning up to the Met Gala (what?) in a dress bearing the words “Tax the Rich”.

As Julie Burchill has pointed out, tickets to this event (what is the Met Gala?) cost $35,000. I assume that Ocasio-Cortez (I cannot be bothered to google and find out her many achievements that have demonstrably made our lives better) is in that category of rich.

Every single study of peoples’ preference for taxation is that the rich should pay more.

Every single study of peoples’ preference for taxation shows that the person giving that opinion does not consider themselves rich.

So, Ocasio-Cortez can safely be assumed to be commenting on other people richer than her.

…

It reminds me of the mid to late nineties when a common conversation was that a penny on income tax directed towards education would be a good thing.

I am not arguing for or against that stance.

But I am very sure that none of the individuals putting forward that proposal ever voluntarily paid more tax than required.

I don’t think Ocasio-Cortez ever voluntarily pays more tax either, suggesting an element of virtue-signalling hypocrisy, which never sits well with the CCC.

But I could be wrong.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Power usage

There has been some debate on the environmental impact due to Proof of Work (POW) mining for BTC (and ETH for now).

There are some who claim the impact is very bad for the environment. There are some who claim that BTC mining is encouraging the take-up of non-legacy carbon sources of energy.

As always, there is no right or wrong answer – it will be a mix. What I do know is that the media focus on this issue will undoubtedly result in an ever-greater proportion of green, renewable energy.

The mass migration of miners out of China earlier this year, with the primary beneficiary being the US, is helpful on this point. As Joe Biden gets set for a trillion or two more subsidies for renewables, the energy mix in the US is heading for a much lower carbon content than China will ever even try to achieve.

…

This subject is going to come up again.

Bloomberg has reported that BTC mining has already used more power in 2021 than for the whole of last year with more than three months still to go. By the end of the year, comparisons will be made to the energy usage of the Philippines.

…

And in related news, the rapid turnover of machines used in mining leads to discarded computer equipment and electronics. A study by Science Direct estimates that each block leads to 272 grams of e-waste, with a total waste of 51 metric kilotons for 2021.