https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/cgryi1/international_energy_agencys_report_on_bitcoin/
78% of bitcoin mining uses renewables https://twitter.com/C_Bendiksen/status/1068221424777814016 apparently because of their cheaper marginal cost
debunking of the nature paper https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/1056976815032582144
https://twitter.com/Beetcoin/status/935460412262375424
https://hackernoon.com/the-reports-of-bitcoin-environmental-damage-are-garbage-5a93d32c2d7 reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/almsef/the_reports_of_bitcoin_environmental_damage_are/
https://medium.com/coinshares/beware-of-lazy-research-c828c900b7d5
= calculations =
my own back of the envelope calculation of bitcoin energy usage compared to other relevant measures
done after reading the book Sustainable Energy by MacKay
want the usage in kwh/day/person
as of 30th october 2019
btc/usd = 9100
miner fees are low, so block reward is just inflation
miner income = value of block reward per day = 9100 usd * 12.5 btc/block * 6*24 block/day = 16380000 usd
say miners spend 80% of their income on electricity, with the remaining as R&D costs, capital costs, labour costs, profit etc etc
value of electricity purchased by all miners per day = 16380000 usd * 80% = 13104000 usd
miners have a strong incentive to use energy as cheaply as possible, that is hydro power from https://planetsave.com/2016/03/09/hydropower-costs-renewable-energy-hydroelectricity-costs-vs-renewable-fossil-costs/
we take that hydro power costs 0.85 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh) = 0.0085 usd/kwh
power usage by all miners per day = 13104000 usd / 0.0085 usd/kwh = 15416470588 kwh
bitcoin aims to serves all humans, the global and permissionless nature is a big use-value. as a recent conference there were venezeulans, argentinians, indians, chinese, nigerians as well as americans and europeans
world population 7.7 billion
power usage by all miners per day per person = 15416470588 kwh / 7700000000 = 2 kwh / day / person
the value 2 kwh/day/person compares with 40 kwh/d/p for cars, 30 kwh/d/p for jet flights, 37 kwh/d/p for heating 15 kwh/d/p for food/farming, 48 kwh/d/p for "stuff" and 12 kwh/d/p for transporting stuff
the UK power consumption is 180 kwh/d/p so bitcoin's value is 1% of that