> Bitcoin currently consumes over 0.1% of the entire energy of the planet
bitcoin doesn't consume any energy at all, you have a severe misunderstanding of what PoW is and how it works.
bitcoin doesn't consume any energy at all, you have a severe misunderstanding of what PoW is and how it works.
the answer is that bitcoin doesn't require any amount of energy beyond a single computer to churn out blocks. all the energy usually attributed to being "used" by bitcoin is in fact energy purchased by users to acquire and/or maintain certain level of security of their financial assets.
bitcoin is simply an instrument through which security of financial assets can be expressed in form of pure energy, which is completely transparent and can't be faked. that security comes for a price and as long as users are willing to pay this much money for that amount of security - miners will continue producing it, consuming energy in the process.
But of course you know that. I wonder why the trollish comments.
i'm sure you would agree that amount of energy required to find signatures at 0 difficulty is negligible
> And every year it gets harder, by design (to control the volume of new btc).
no, it doesn't get harder "by design", it gets harder because bitcoin is an instrument that has created a market where financial security can be purchased in form of energy, so it gets harder because that kind of security has value on the market and users keep purchasing it.
> But of course you know that. I wonder why the trollish comments.
turns out you were wrong in your assumptions, yet you proceeded to call me a troll. how about not doing that in future?
So get off your high horse and do something that actually helps the environment rather than fighting windmills.