Do you own physical gold as an investment?

Type_45

The environment is a non-issue with bitcoin mining. And even if it were, there are only 21 million bitcoins which can be mined. More than 18 million have already been mined. So it will come to an end soon and there will be no more mining anyway. With or without regulations.

masonic

Type_45 said:

The environment is a non-issue with bitcoin mining. And even if it were, there are only 21 million bitcoins which can be mined. More than 18 million have already been mined. So it will come to an end soon and there will be no more mining anyway. With or without regulations.

No it won't, you clearly don't understand how bitcoin works. Mining is the process of adding transactions to the ledger, and it will continue as long as bitcoin is transacted by anyone.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56012952 for a recent discussion of the energy consumption.

Type_45

masonic said:

Type_45 said:

The environment is a non-issue with bitcoin mining. And even if it were, there are only 21 million bitcoins which can be mined. More than 18 million have already been mined. So it will come to an end soon and there will be no more mining anyway. With or without regulations.

No it won't, you clearly don't understand how bitcoin works. Mining is the process of adding transactions to the ledger, and it will continue as long as bitcoin is transacted by anyone.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56012952 for a recent discussion of the energy consumption.

Then it will continue. Get used to it. Buy some in the current dip.

aaj123

masonic said:

Type_45 said:

The environment is a non-issue with bitcoin mining. And even if it were, there are only 21 million bitcoins which can be mined. More than 18 million have already been mined. So it will come to an end soon and there will be no more mining anyway. With or without regulations.

No it won't, you clearly don't understand how bitcoin works. Mining is the process of adding transactions to the ledger, and it will continue as long as bitcoin is transacted by anyone.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56012952 for a recent discussion of the energy consumption.

Mining will continue but the incentive for spending on energy comes largely from the block reward and this tapers down to half every four years. Eventually the price will stabilise and result in block rewards coming down. They will be replaced by fees but these will not be ever increasing.

masonic

Type_45 said:

masonic said:

Type_45 said:

The environment is a non-issue with bitcoin mining. And even if it were, there are only 21 million bitcoins which can be mined. More than 18 million have already been mined. So it will come to an end soon and there will be no more mining anyway. With or without regulations.

No it won't, you clearly don't understand how bitcoin works. Mining is the process of adding transactions to the ledger, and it will continue as long as bitcoin is transacted by anyone.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56012952 for a recent discussion of the energy consumption.

Then it will continue. Get used to it. Buy some in the current dip.

There's no need to get used to it. Regulation is coming, for good or for bad, whether you like it or not. Try buying a bitcoin ETF now. It was possible until recently. As Thrug mentioned, other countries are taking more severe measures.

As I've previously mentioned, I have enough exposure to bitcoin already, despite having sold my direct holding recently.

aaj123 said:

masonic said:

Type_45 said:

The environment is a non-issue with bitcoin mining. And even if it were, there are only 21 million bitcoins which can be mined. More than 18 million have already been mined. So it will come to an end soon and there will be no more mining anyway. With or without regulations.

No it won't, you clearly don't understand how bitcoin works. Mining is the process of adding transactions to the ledger, and it will continue as long as bitcoin is transacted by anyone.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56012952 for a recent discussion of the energy consumption.

Mining will continue but the incentive for spending on energy comes largely from the block reward and this tapers down to half every four years. Eventually the price will stabilise and result in block rewards coming down. They will be replaced by fees but these will not be ever increasing.

This is another issue as the transaction fees are already having to rise to make up for halvenings. You could be correct that ultimately energy consumption will fall naturally as the price stabilises at a lower level than today. We are a few decades off the reward becoming insignificant. Knock a couple of zeroes off the current price and these issues do go away, so I take your point, I'm just sceptical that such a drop and stabilisation is coming along in the short term. Even a modest growth rate of 11% per year will counteract the effect of the reward halving.

Type_45

Regulation is a good thing. If you've sold up, that's fine. Leave others to enjoy bitcoin and the future gains. Each to their own.

masonic

Type_45 said:

Regulation is a good thing. If you've sold up, that's fine. Leave others to enjoy bitcoin and the future gains. Each to their own.

Like I said above, my issue isn't people holding bitcoin, it is the impact of the amount of mining going on. Regulation of that would indeed be a good thing.

Type_45

masonic said:

Type_45 said:

Regulation is a good thing. If you've sold up, that's fine. Leave others to enjoy bitcoin and the future gains. Each to their own.

Like I said above, my issue isn't people holding bitcoin, it is the impact of the amount of mining going on. Regulation of that would indeed be a good thing.

Your White Knight environmentalism might be a bit more believable had you not just told us all that you held bitcoin yourself until recently.

masonic

Type_45 said:

masonic said:

Type_45 said:

Regulation is a good thing. If you've sold up, that's fine. Leave others to enjoy bitcoin and the future gains. Each to their own.

Like I said above, my issue isn't people holding bitcoin, it is the impact of the amount of mining going on. Regulation of that would indeed be a good thing.

Your White Knight environmentalism might be a bit more believable had you not just told us all that you held bitcoin yourself until recently.

Do keep up, as mentioned just a couple of posts above, the energy consumption issues go away if you knock a couple of zeroes of the price. The bitcoin I bought was as a curiosity, quite a number of years ago. Energy consumption then was a tiny fraction of what it is today. In any case, holding bitcoin does not require any energy to be consumed. I've never mined. I may have benefited from some energy use when selling, but I think I can live with that - the block would have been mined anyway with or without my transaction on it.

It is a shame some bitcoin enthusiasts get so defensive and attack anyone who doesn't share their evangelical views. Spoils it for those who are capable of reasonable discourse as threads inevitably get deleted.

HansOndabush

Why are we digressing into the 'puff of nothing' called bitcoin on a physical gold thread? Go make your own bitcoin thread if that's what you want to gas about.