Comment by progforlyfe | Hacker News Reader

Comment by progforlyfe | Hacker News Reader

If I understand the system correctly, the vast majority of bitcoin energy consumption comes from the mining process, which is not strictly required (at least not anymore, with 18+ million BTC now mined and in circulation). I can spin up the bitcoin software on my home PC to participate in the network, sending and receiving bitcoin, and confirming some transactions, and the power consumed would be low. Much less than running a 4k graphics 3D game.

Because of that, banning bitcoin ownership and trading seems to be overkill or missing the point... Just regulate/limit mining, or even better put a capacity on electricity usage or have tiers where the more you use, the more expensive it is, making mining not worth it after a certain point.

All that said, government regulation will be extremely challenging here as it would require cooperation of nearly every country on Earth, and we've seen how difficult that is.

Mining Bitcoin is a necessity if you want to transact, so you can't eliminate it. Basically, validating transactions is very costly, so people doing it get rewarded with "mined" bitcoin.

If miners stop mining, you cannot transact in it, at least with the current "proof of work" approach. There are some alternatives, like proof of stake, but they are not mainstream yet.

The mining process is _how_ transactions are verified and recorded. Bitcoin doesn't work without it. Mining is a misnomer. You aren't finding bitcoin. It's a reward for solving a problem that proves you participated in helping record transactions for the network.

No, the expensive mining process is required to build the block chain and prevent double spending. It is also used to determine who gets block rewards (transaction fees). Bitcoin will continue to consume more and more power forever

> Just regulate/limit mining

It's designed to be unregulatable.

It already uses the model where you can decide not to mine if it will cost you too much electricity.

You don't understand the system correctly. Mining bitcoins is also confirming transactions, which is the sending and receiving of bitcoins. Yes you could use your home PC but you would never find a block and so never confirm a transaction.

> Just regulate/limit mining, or even better put a capacity on electricity usage or have tiers where the more you use, the more expensive it is, making mining not worth it after a certain point.

Isn't that the exact method used, electricity is metered, the more you use, the more expensive it is.

Yes it drives up the price for everyone else because there's demand, but by that argument we would need to look at other energy intensive activities, like heating and driving, which feels like a step backwards.

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