"Mining" for digital currency requires computation. Computation requires continuous electric power. In order to mine new "coins" the computation becomes more complex and time-consuming...and power consuming. Others have done this analysis. The requirements are growing exponentially due to the nature of the mathematics and there will come a time when we simply do not have enough electric power to keep the blockchain calculations going and it all comes to a stop. An EMP only hastens the end. A bitcoin is not worth the paper it is not printed on. Market volatility is very high, because there is no commodity value. I can't even use a bitcoin as a coffee coaster. A cowrie shell has more commodity value than a bitcoin. A bitcoin is fiat currency for the paperless society.
In order to mine new "coins" the computation becomes more complex and time-consuming...and power consuming.
That's not true
In the Bitcoin protocol new coins are created automatically.
The only power used is a contest to see who gets those new coins
This is not really necessary, and could be shut down and alternative methods used for new coin distribution.
But it does have a good side effect it does make the blockchain ledger harder to corrupt.
Anybody who says that they have done the analysis and say the energy requirements will grow exponentially until the blockchain collapses are just clueless.
From Wikipedia (so corrupt, they even falsify raw data, right?):
"In 2021, a study by Cambridge University determined that Bitcoin (at 121 terawatt-hours per year) used more electricity than Argentina (at 121TWh) and the Netherlands (109TWh). According to Digiconomist, one bitcoin transaction required 708 kilowatt-hours of electrical energy, the amount an average U.S. household consumed in 24 days."
"By 2022, the University of Cambridge and Digiconomist estimated that the two largest proof-of-work blockchains, Bitcoin and Ethereum, together used twice as much electricity in one year as the whole of Sweden..."
"Mining" for digital currency requires computation. Computation requires continuous electric power. In order to mine new "coins" the computation becomes more complex and time-consuming...and power consuming. Others have done this analysis. The requirements are growing exponentially due to the nature of the mathematics and there will come a time when we simply do not have enough electric power to keep the blockchain calculations going and it all comes to a stop. An EMP only hastens the end. A bitcoin is not worth the paper it is not printed on. Market volatility is very high, because there is no commodity value. I can't even use a bitcoin as a coffee coaster. A cowrie shell has more commodity value than a bitcoin. A bitcoin is fiat currency for the paperless society.
That's not true
In the Bitcoin protocol new coins are created automatically.
The only power used is a contest to see who gets those new coins This is not really necessary, and could be shut down and alternative methods used for new coin distribution. But it does have a good side effect it does make the blockchain ledger harder to corrupt.
Anybody who says that they have done the analysis and say the energy requirements will grow exponentially until the blockchain collapses are just clueless.
From Wikipedia (so corrupt, they even falsify raw data, right?):
"In 2021, a study by Cambridge University determined that Bitcoin (at 121 terawatt-hours per year) used more electricity than Argentina (at 121TWh) and the Netherlands (109TWh). According to Digiconomist, one bitcoin transaction required 708 kilowatt-hours of electrical energy, the amount an average U.S. household consumed in 24 days."
"By 2022, the University of Cambridge and Digiconomist estimated that the two largest proof-of-work blockchains, Bitcoin and Ethereum, together used twice as much electricity in one year as the whole of Sweden..."
They started out at zero.