Chapter 6
The Future of Cryptocurrency Mining
IN THIS CHAPTER
Mining incentivizing efficient energy production
Increasing computational capabilities
Understanding the mining death spiral
Considering the future of corporate and national participation
What does the future hold for the now budding Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining industry? It has been thriving as of late, and the future appears to be as bright as the past 13 years.
Incentivization of Energy Exploration
The process of Bitcoin mining is inherently an energy-intensive process, by design, to prevent malicious actors from co-opting the system for their own personal gain. The most economically effective miners tend to be those that find the most cost-efficient sources of electricity.
One study found that on a per-unit economic basis, in 2018, mining a dollar’s worth of Bitcoin was four times as expensive as mining a dollar’s worth of gold. (Based on the price of Bitcoin at the time of writing, it would, today, be a little less than twice the price.) However, a recent study estimated that gold mining uses much more energy ...
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