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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Environmental economics
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The Bitcoin Dilemma - Weighing the Economic and Environmental Costs and Benefits (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2022)
Loot Price: R935
Discovery Miles 9 350
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The Bitcoin Dilemma - Weighing the Economic and Environmental Costs and Benefits (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2022)
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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There are few innovations that have the potential to revolutionize
commerce and have evolved so quickly that there remain significant
misunderstandings about their operation, opportunity, and
challenges as has Bitcoin in the dozen years since its invention.
The potential for banking, transacting, and public recording of
important records is profound, but can be displacing if not done
with appropriate care, and is downright dangerous if certain
pitfalls are not noted and avoided. Among other things, this book
proves the existence of a Bitcoin dilemma that challenges the
conventional wisdom which mistakenly asserts the incredibly
intensive energy consumption in Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency mining
will be remedied by more efficient mining machines or sustainable
power sources. It shows for the first time within a well-specified
economic model of Bitcoin mining that the recent runup in
electricity consumption has a simple and inevitable explanation.
For a coin with almost completely inelastic supply and steadily
increasing demand, the conditions for accelerating electricity
demand is consistent with economic theory and may well characterize
the future of Bitcoin. The book also demonstrates the
counterintuitive result that improvements in mining efficiency, in
terms of electricity consumption per terahash of processing power,
or decreases in electricity costs as cheaper sustainable energy is
diverted to this industry, merely exacerbates the acceleration of
energy consumption because of a prisoner's dilemma
arms-race-to-the-bottom. The book proposes policy solutions to
mitigate this Bitcoin dilemma but note that the mobility of
industry capacity which needs but a ready supply of electricity and
an Internet connection frustrates local regulation and warrants
global solutions. The incredible opportunities of this industry
will only be realized if our regulators, legislators,
entrepreneurs, and general public garner a more complete and
objective understanding of this and other Proof-of-Work mining
techniques. The book provides this broader perspective based on the
author's research as an economist, his position as a director of a
large regional bank, his understanding as a technologist and as an
environmental and sustainability researcher, and his public policy
experience as a mayor who has also written books and articles about
public policy and public finance.
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