Bitcoin Q&A: The value of proof-of-work

Is it possible that someone with worst setup trying to mine and fortunately in first try the nonce turnout correct therefore created a block. And this big guy with mining rig didn't have chance just because of luck. Is it possible this could happen?

Why is everyone so obsessed with energy usage of bitcoin? If btc energy usage freaks people out then gaming console usage must freak them too. Oh wait it doesn't. Even though on average consoles are used 4hrs a day and uses more electricity than bitcoin does 24hrs a day.

Thank you so much for your knowledge and efforts in educating people on crypto ❤️❤️❤️ God bless

Check out NANO dPOS Block Lattice

It came to my mind that one of the best places to earn bitcoin on earth is probably the sahel region. Thank you for explaining how the uselessness of bitcoin POW outside of bitcoin is actually an important security feature of bitcoin.

Or you can sell energy generated during the day hours to the electricity grid since solo mining isn't using up that much energy and isn't that profitable?

Solar energy: The cost of mining equipment force the investor to mining 24/7. The mining equipment will be obsolete over time so the investor can not just mine some hours around noon. It means that when the mining is installed then the over all energy consuming in ampere and watt will be higher out of sync with the energy production from solar.

The solar panel can be connected to the grid and the energy can be transported to the placed where the demand is.

Bitcoin's security is based on the strength of the SHA256 algorithm, not a bloody promise of the commitment of energy. The security is technical, not social.

Renewable energy is shifting rapidly to being stored in batteries at low peak demand hours. While that shift will be good for expanding the use of renewables, the positive economic case that you present for solar won't exist much longer. So we still very much need to shift to a proof system which does not use large amounts of energy.

Thank you Andreas! There is plenty of energy all around us. We just need the incentive to tap into it and thanks to Bitcoin, now we do. Thirty years from now Africa can grow as dramatically as China–Bitcoin mining and solar panels everywhere! Replacing the corrupt fiat money with real value and fairness is worth the energy consumed!

Love the channel and appreciate it's information, but the answer about energy is wrong in so so many ways! Yes, blockchain and cryptocurrencies have many great potentials and characteristics but saying it subsidizes solar and other renewables is just plain false. How many mining operations turn off thier rigs as soon as the sun goes down, or on cloudy days, or whenever the wind is not blowing?

Could it not be said that miners are a 3rd party? What about miners pooling together and making up 51% or more of the total? Not much different than one entity having 51% or more of the nodes in proof of stake

if you lowered the difficulty, then did a lottery of shares, the blocks would be just as safe

If you search the word "crypto" as a prefix, it means, "concealed; secret". I'm not sure why I just now realized that. Whomever "coined" the term "cryptocurrency" certainly did not want us to forget it's true purpose. Any coin or token that is not truly private does not deserve to be called a cryptocurrency. 😉

Are other Distributed Ledger systems like Hyperledger are a threat to public blockchain? or will they help?

Also, I am very thankful you only called coal dirty and not nuclear power 🙂 molten salt reactors for the win

What are some genuinely good business solutions people can implement to add value to the Bitcoin Network? Can you go over different business solutions for different countries?

Love listening to your videos – thanks! imho for bitcoin to become the P2P currency we all need, it would seem that people need to be educated on the names of the units of the fractions of bitcoin like the Satoshi. Yen, franc, pound, dollar, quarter, dime, nickel, penny, etc… are memes that have been around for a long time – some for a very long time – and people need memes to attach a value to, which will take bitcoin to the next level. The units given at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Units are silly and not easy flowing terms. Maybe we could get a list of suggestions and bring it to the core bitcoin community for consensus approval. Once unit names are established they should be incorporated into all crypto apps so people see "10 millis" or whatever amount they're transacting with to begin getting used to the terms. You have to admit saying these tomatoes are 10 bitcoin-ton or .00040960 bitcoin or even 40,960 Satoshi a pound isn't very catchy. I'm sure the millennials would have lots of creative, catchy terms to use that would resonate with their generation. Having the ability to value, both mentally and verbally, goods in terms of bitcoin will go a long way towards bringing it out of the shadow of being valued in terms of other currencies. Bitcoin needs its own terms of valuation. What do you think?

Andreas, one more thing: once you said "regulation of the protocol itself is not possible at this time" to Australian Senate… that scared me! Were you avoiding them to know that is not possible or is it possible and may happen after all?!?!?

Rewards are not needed, running a Delegated Proof of Stake node cost about nothing, NANO is a good example, there's no rewards but still thousands of representatives and they are happy to do it to get "trust votes" and for the network. Rewards lead to corruption and centralization.

excellent! and what will happen when all 21M Bitcoins have been mined, probably in almost 140 years from now, I think!??? Will the system of PoW be the same? will it be a concern for my grand children?!?! 😀

omg thank you so much

What about delegated proof of stake

Thank you!

The mannnn ??? you will be forever remembered in history my friend

Thank you Andreas.

What is the effect of merged mining with bitcoin? I have seen a few references on reddit about how Elastos, which will begin merge mining with bitcoin in december, will benefit.

When you use Miner to generate usable Heat Mining is a costless waste Product. You can do it all over the World and make Mining decentralized. To wate the heat is maximal dumb.

looks very rested

Without question, you are the True! #Bitcoin #Jesus..??

Mr. Antonopoulos, did you have a chance to see what hashgraph is doing? can Hashgraph become a competitor of Bitcoin block chain ?

How do you calculate the watts of energy a single bitcoin represents at any one time?

Thanks Andreas!
Forever grateful for your wonderfully enlightening talks on Bitcoin tech!
RESPECT!

Here's hoping for a decentralized consensus that is sustainable with low impact on the environment.

Watching this video and mining at home using my solar PV array on the roof 🙂

Great questions and valuable answers. Thanks!

Remember that surplus energy can be stored, e.g. by pumping water up into lakes, from where it can be used again at any later time. In Europe it even happened that nuclear energy was used to do that, and then the energy was sold as green, since it came from a lake 🙂

Hydrogen fuel cells….meet Bitcoin mining.