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Why is Bitcoin (BTC) Still Immensely Overvalued Vs. Electric Vehicles?
Bitcoin mining consumes energy and so do Electric Vehicles. However, many feel that Electric Vehicles are sustainable while bitcoin mining is not. The community opinion is that the electricity expenditure for BTC mining is not justified. However, they are okay with the electricity consumption by Electricity Vehicles. A wide array of reasoning backs such beliefs.
Raphel Schon asked why are electric vehicles considered sustainable and Bitcoin mining is not?
Community Response: Because you need a vehicle to get from point A to point B. You do not need proof of work (waste) to maintain a consensus network, as evidenced by the dozens working just fine for years.
You also need to waste energy to get from A to B same as the transfer value from A to B.
It’s not a waste if you use the bare minimum to do Bitcoin’s son’s insane energy use it. It’s not the bare minimum.
You can do the same as BTC for less energy. Less energy means less decentralization. PoW is more decentralized than PoS.
PoW is a processor crunching crypto hashes like sha2, Where the difficulty is set with leading zeros. that’s it. It costs energy and a lot is wasted. Every time someone shows up with a block but didn’t win he just wasted all that energy trying to beat others.
Whataboutism: EVs are a more sustainable alternative to ICE because the latter spews CO2 and EVs can be powered by renewables, including solar-powered charging stations as well as rooftop solar. Bitcoin is causing mothballed fossil fuel power plants to be reactivated.
“Globally, estimates of Bitcoin’s use of renewables range from about 40 percent to almost 75 percent.”
The next sentence of the piece where your quote is from is: “But in general, experts say, using renewable energy to power Bitcoin mining means it won’t be available to power a home, a factory, or an electric car.”
Do we have unlimited production or materials for solar panels, or space to put them? All of that takes away solar capacity that could be used for transitioning away from fossil fuels.
As we transition from fossil fuels are we supposed to cut back on anything else or just bitcoin?
We have changed light bulbs, we are changing cars, just about everything is marketed on its efficiency. Program thermostats, recycle electronics, eat less meat, retrofit buildings, install ceiling fans, improve transit, buy local produce, and switch furnaces for heat pumps.
LED light bulbs had an economic incentive, they’re cheaper. Everything was changed to help the user save money on energy bills. Do you have an example of anything that is more expensive to run but better for the environment? That’s why ICE cars still outsell EVs. Price sensitivity
Recently, dove deep into EV factories on a project helping a major player reduce their Co2 emissions. I was shocked upon seeing the statistics. Did you know that it takes 7 years for an EV to become greener than a combustion engine? Neither did I.
That’s bullshit. Old study before Tesla made battery systems automated and more efficient. Environmental payback is now around 1 year.
Because electric vehicles are more efficient than their ICE brothers. Do you not want to understand this? Or is it because you can’t?
EV vs ICE is a great analogy. Similar to digital gold mining and physical gold mining, right?
How are electric vehicles sustainable? Anyone, you know ever bought a second-hand Tesla, with 2-3yrs of battery used on it? Tell us what is the second-hand electric car market like?
The usage of the energy is irrelevant to sustainability, the source of the energy is. EVs and mining that use solar etc are sustainable. EVs and mining that use coal or natural gas are not. I think modern nuclear ought to be in the sustainable category.
It’s all about power and control. The banks and big money players are invested in these EV companies and not so much Bitcoin.
Because EVs don’t waste electricity competitively. The bitcoin network is organized around a demented competition, in which miners compete to waste as much electricity as fast as they possibly can, to win the new bitcoins that are being issued every 10 minutes or so.
Waste’ when usage is choice is a nonstarter. Is gaming waste, dishwasher, long hot shower? How about an EV ride to do something useless? Choice & user carried costs balance this. Freedom to value things differently or w/o we have arbitrariness and rise of totalitarianism.
The Bitcoin network consumes as much energy as the whole of Argentina and it is far from being the best crypto on the market. Therefore, we don’t need another highly energy-consumer country. On the opposite, EVs bring down gas emissions. The real question is: Why is BTC still immensely overvalued?
