There is a easy way to solve this. It can be solved that energy consumption is calculated progressively. If the household consumes a normal / average amount of energy for the household, then the normal price for electricity goes. If 50% more is spent, the price jumps twice. 100% higher consumption than average, the price goes up by 400%. So now, let all the miners calculate how profitable it is for them to mine.

China gotta go nuclear and fast.

alengrosevic:

There is a easy way to solve this. It can be solved that energy consumption is calculated progressively. If the household consumes a normal / average amount of energy for the household, then the normal price for electricity goes. If 50% more is spent, the price jumps twice. 100% higher consumption than average, the price goes up by 400%. So now, let all the miners calculate how profitable it is for them to mine.

That would totally ignore the huge segment of entities running mining as a business. Can you even say it's just another household when the place is basically a warehouse or whatever other property with hundreds of GPUs mining? Or ASICs. The heavy miners in China have established their mining lairs in parts of China where cheap coal power is available. It's no household. Otherwise, as long as we are talking about China, it's kind of pointless to come up with plots like that. In China the government knows even the brand of toilet paper you are using, so if they want you to stop mining or pay extra for it, then they can do it. However, they haven't for a few of reasons, the main ones being: Foolish Westerners use real money to buy crypto and, on the other hand, China has been long playing with the developing country status (even though it's the second richest country in the world) to avoid emission control responsibilities, despite nominally being a part of the environmental protection deals.

Ryu5uzaku:

China gotta go nuclear and fast.

Depend if nuked or power plan (or nuked by powerplan due to lack of semi conductor to repair control tool)... More seriously, you are very optimistic about power delivered by nuclear power plan... At this level of consomation of energy they will need an army of powerplan. Maybe reducing the way to consume so much would be a better solution.

I wouldn't be surprised if crypto currencies are banned due to environmental reasons at some point given the above.

Andy Watson:

I wouldn't be surprised if crypto currencies are banned due to environmental reasons at some point given the above.

theres no environmental reason to bother doing so, get these countries on renewables and or nuclear.

Astyanax:

theres no environmental reason to bother doing so, get these countries on renewables and or nuclear.

I do not like those solar fields of death. In hot days they kill anything flying above it.

This is why we don't have or get nice things.

What a waste of earth resources.... whoever takes part in the crypto-madness is simply stupid, greedy and irresponsible.

in 30 years it will consume 50% of all energy generated. we really do deserve to go extinct

What are they going to do with all this worthless virtual currency when the climate and economies collapse because of it. One BTC won't be worth the price of a loaf of bread then.

Martin5000:

in 30 years it will consume 50% of all energy generated.

but... the very study say that by 2029 even in the worst case (market access scenario), BTC emissions will be negligible. RTFM https://abload.de/img/screenshot2021-04-091m4jh5.png

Kaarme:

In China the government knows even the brand of toilet paper you are using, so if they want you to stop mining or pay extra for it, then they can do it. However, they haven't China has been long playing with the developing country status (even though it's the second richest country in the world) to avoid emission control responsibilities, despite nominally being a part of the environmental protection deals.

It's weird that in the same sentence you ridicule Chinese state for overreaching, while complaining that it wont use its all-powerful abilities. When it comes to international emission responsibilities, it is completely irrelevant whether China is a developed or developing country. Paris Agreement makes no distinction between two categories. Your country Finland, is still spewing more CO2 per capita than China [spoiler] https://abload.de/img/screenshot2021-04-091q8khr.png [/spoiler]

Go figure. China being the selfish pricks they are causing world problems.

Wasting resources of any kind to "create" something that does not really exist is pretty insane if you think about it. The power of crypto (and I think it's original intent) is to move or hold money without big banks or a government being involved. This mining nonsense will give those governments and big banks cause to ban it outright. So once again greed ruins it for everyone.

rl66:

Depend if nuked or power plan (or nuked by powerplan due to lack of semi conductor to repair control tool)... More seriously, you are very optimistic about power delivered by nuclear power plan... At this level of consomation of energy they will need an army of powerplan. Maybe reducing the way to consume so much would be a better solution.

Considering that consumption won't happen. Ah well. Nuclear power plants actually do deliver quite a bit power and they are actually better for nature also then let's say fields of solar or putting tons of wind turbines everywhere. And they have the biggest renewable energy dam in the world.

Ryu5uzaku:

Considering that consumption won't happen. Ah well. Nuclear power plants actually do deliver quite a bit power and they are actually better for nature also then let's say fields of solar or putting tons of wind turbines everywhere. And they have the biggest renewable energy dam in the world.

This is true I believe but you have A LOT of people out there who think renewables will save the day if we would just put enough of them out there. Currently (as I understand it) it's just not the case given the energy they produce AND some of those methods while producing clean energy are not environmentally friendly themselves. It's like this electric car situation. As things sit now what many are doing is just charging a giant non-environmentally friendly battery (made with resources using Lord knows what horrible methods) and it's not "clean" energy that is charging that battery. I always thought hybrids were a much wiser choice.

Noisiv:

It's weird that in the same sentence you ridicule Chinese state for overreaching, while complaining that it wont use its all-powerful abilities. When it comes to international emission responsibilities, it is completely irrelevant whether China is a developed or developing country. Paris Agreement makes no distinction between two categories. Your country Finland, is still spewing more CO2 per capita than China

What is weird? I have consistently complained about countries doing nothing about the crypto currency for a long time. China is in a unique position of being a totalitarian country and thus if the CCP made crypto illegal, absolutely zero people in China could challenge the decision. They could do it in a day. The people and business could only obey or risk facing the law enforcement. Or move abroad. In the West, I imagine, there would be a lot of slow debate, political battles, legal expert consultation, constitution evaluation, you name it, before the laws could be passed, many months if not a year later. And even then people would be busy finding loopholes allowing them to continue. The officials could do absolutely nothing if the loophole was real. The whole emission thing is so messy that I could spend a week trying to understand it and still wouldn't, but it's easy enough to notice the treaty has various categories for countries, one being developed/industrial ones, and the other being developing ones. The developed countries are supposed to aid the developing ones financially to cut emissions. I'll give you a single chance to guess where China belongs. It's not like there's any industry in China, right? All of our houses are full of made in China products, yet China isn't industrialised. It's the second largest economy in the world, although one day soonish it could be the largest, but it's still a developing country. Lol. Back in the day the news were writing about obsolete/fake coal plants in China with massive emissions. China shut them down and was able to use the freed emission credits for real things or sell them. I admit I have no idea if that was real or fake news. A third of Finland is above the arctic circle. The rest obviously just below. The winter if long and cold, and will kill you without a solid, heated house. If you removed that factor, Finland's graph would be below China's. I've seen it estimated 30% of Finland's emissions are due to warming up the houses. I guess all Finns could move south to an environment more suitable for human life. Would your country be welcoming?

rl66:

Depend if nuked or power plan (or nuked by powerplan due to lack of semi conductor to repair control tool)... More seriously, you are very optimistic about power delivered by nuclear power plan... At this level of consomation of energy they will need an army of powerplan. Maybe reducing the way to consume so much would be a better solution.

well, this might be of interest: https://futurism.com/china-floating-nuclear-power-plant sooo...yea.

Fox2232:

I do not like those solar fields of death. In hot days they kill anything flying above it.

The only solar fields I'm aware of that kill anything are these: https://www.power-eng.com/content/dam/pe/print-articles/2015/09/Photo1-ivanpah-mingasson-5604-8.jpg Which are not that common. Photovoltaic plants kill birds too but to a much lesser degree. Besides, I would rather a few dead birds than actively contribute toward climate change.

Noisiv:

but... the very study say that by 2029 even in the worst case (market access scenario), BTC emissions will be negligible. RTFM https://abload.de/img/screenshot2021-04-091m4jh5.png It's weird that in the same sentence you ridicule Chinese state for overreaching, while complaining that it wont use its all-powerful abilities. When it comes to international emission responsibilities, it is completely irrelevant whether China is a developed or developing country. Paris Agreement makes no distinction between two categories. Your country Finland, is still spewing more CO2 per capita than China [spoiler] https://abload.de/img/screenshot2021-04-091q8khr.png [/spoiler]

Most likely we will drop under China anyway with the introduction of newest nuclear power plant. We will produce 90% of the electricity without co2 starting 2022. And next nuclear power plant coming up in 2028 so after that it's 0% in terms of power. Then it is only cars and stuff like that. Ofc China is behind also simply because they are not that rich per capita either so not buying useless things and everyone having a car and all the appliances known to man.