The Environmental Case Against Bitcoin

They mention in the article that as there is a limited amount of coins that can be mined the mining activity will eventually die down, but as I understand it the verification and validation of transactions happens along with mining.<p>How will verification work if mining stops? Or will the mining just stop producing new coins but continue being profitable with just the transaction fees?

It&#x27;s astounding how much concern there is about the <i>relatively</i>(!) small impact of bitcoin mining on the environment while we have immense adverse effects on the global environment from things like cargo ships without so much as a peep from anyone.<p>How do you expect to solve the bitcoin problem? Stop mining?

Dollars require infrastructure too. Thousands of banks and other institutions are required to operate it. They have offices (that take energy) and employees (that take energy and also have households that take energy). Most of that energy comes from fossil fuel. I&#x27;m pretty sure operation of dollar costs much more than operation of Bitcoin. Let&#x27;s ban dollar.<p>High price of bitcoin resulted in surge of &quot;bitcoin is a fraud&quot; kind of articles to HN. Who wants to play bears on Bitcoin market that much?

Similar article discussed couple of hours ago:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15858487" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15858487</a>

Are there any reasonable alternatives to Bitcoin which are more environmentally friendly and therefore more long term viable? While still being serious contenders. I know Ethereum is working on Proof of Stake but it still sounds far off and uncertain.

The electricity to mine can be made by environmentally friendly means.

People fly all the time, that&#x27;s also bad for the environment. Don&#x27;t do it...

By this article&#x27;s logic, developing and deploying more electric cars will put a strain on the enviornment as well, as most energy still comes from fossil fuels.

&quot;Mining the cryptocurrency requires a staggering amount of energy—contributing to global warming and providing little public benefit.&quot;<p>Completely misses the entire point of why bitcoin was created.