Comment by dijit
17 days ago
Nothing happened to them, they're still around; just consolidated into industrial operations.
The "twist" is they rot as e-waste every 18 months when newer models arrive, generating roughly 30,000 metric tonnes of eWaste annually[0] with no recycling programmes from manufacturers (like Bitmain)... which is comparable to the entire country of the Netherlands.
Turns out the decentralised currency for the people is also an environmental disaster built on planned obsolescence. Who knew.
[0]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09213...
> urns out the decentralised currency for the people is also an environmental disaster built on planned obsolescence. Who knew.
Only proof of work systems, such as Bitcoin. Proof of stake such as Ethereum is a lot less energy intensive
ethereum has a similar ewaste problem
> ethereum has a similar ewaste problem
Is it any worse now than say, the NYSE ?
This reference says energy usage was 0.0026 TWh (2.6 GWh, or 2600 MWh) in a year
https://ethereum.org/energy-consumption
If the power was used over the whole year (and not just one hour)
(2600 MWh / year) / (24 * 365 h/year) = 0.29 MWh = 296 kWh. Thats like hair dryer levels of power consumption (if the hair dryver was left on all the time)
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