The problem with Bitcoin miners
Proof-of-work is so obviously, undeniably, mathematically guaranteed to be a crypto dead-end, that I&#x27;m gobsmacked we&#x27;re still having discussions like this.<p>Proof-of-work requires, <i>by design</i>, that the electricity value expended on mining is proportional to the <i>total</i> market cap of Bitcoin. It&#x27;s really just simple arbitrage: if the value of Bitcoin goes up, but the electricity cost doesn&#x27;t, then you have essentially 2 different prices for 1 good, which should attract more miners to spend more money on electricity. And, indeed, this is exactly what has happened.<p>The problem, of course, is that if it takes an Argentina&#x27;s worth of electricity to run Bitcoin now, how does the world manage if Bitcoin has a 10 or 100 times greater market cap? Obviously it can&#x27;t, and world governments would rightly shut it all down before the majority of our electric output went to mining BTC.<p>There is simply no way around this issue if you&#x27;re on a proof-of-work system, and given that, it&#x27;s so easy to see that BTC is <i>guaranteed</i> to fail at some point. It&#x27;s like we&#x27;re on a train rushing towards a bridge that&#x27;s out, and everyone can see the bridge is out, but somehow we&#x27;ve convinced a large number of people that we&#x27;ll &quot;jump the gap&quot; when we get there.