Google mining bitcoin vs litecoin
Bitcoin mining consumes a lot of energy. Every once in a while, someone compares this to another random metric — say, the energy consumption of Ireland — and it induces a collective gasp. How can this thing be sustainable? Bitcoin's little brother Ethereum is at an all-time high.
It's true that Bitcoin mining is an awful energy drain. Hundreds of thousands of application-specific integrated circuits or ASICs — specific hardware aimed exclusively for mining google mining bitcoin vs litecoin — hum in huge hallsmainly located in China, and use enormous google mining bitcoin vs litecoin of electricity to create new bitcoins.
They also power the Bitcoin transaction network, but they do it in a horribly inefficient way. The fact that a huge chunk of China's electricity comes from fossil fuels makes the situation even worse. But things aren't that simple. We don't know, exactly, how power-hungry Bitcoin really is. And whatever google mining bitcoin vs litecoin figure is, Bitcoin certainly doesn't need that much energy to run.
Furthermore, energy consumption issues can potentially be fixed with a future upgrade of the Bitcoin software, which is easier than, say, reducing the energy footprint of Ireland.
Google mining bitcoin vs litecoin, there google mining bitcoin vs litecoin other cryptocurrencies out there working on a solution to this problem. Despite what you might've read, we don't have exact figures on Bitcoin's energy consumption. A site called Google mining bitcoin vs litecoin keeps stats on how much energy Bitcoin is consuming, and it's the primary source for the stories circulating on the subject. Some of these stats look horrific: Bitcoin's current energy consumption is But we shouldn't blindly trust those numbers.
Getting exact energy consumption figures for miners, many of whom are secretive and located in China, is not easy, so Digiconomist uses a very roundabout way to make its estimates.
It's impossible to say how accurate Digiconomist's index is, but it could be off by some measure. Furthermore, the energy consumption is rising because of Bitcoin's quite insane price rise, not because the network actually requires it. This price growth is a huge incentive for miners to add even more ASICs and use up even more energy, but it doesn't really have to do much with the number of transactions on the network.
In fact, the number of transactions on Bitcoin's network hasn't significantly increased in a year. The number of transactions on Bitcoin's blockchain pictured isn't significantly bigger today than it was a year ago.
And yet, the energy consumption of Bitcoin rose immensely. There are two reasons for this. Bitcoin's network can't handle many more transactions though a recent software upgradeyet to take full effect, should improve this.
Furthermore, Bitcoin isn't exactly doing its job the way its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, had intended. Due to its price rise, not many owners actually use their bitcoins to purchase goods; instead, everyone is either hoarding it or speculating with it.
This means that talking about the energy cost of one Bitcoin transaction is misleading. A figure that's thrown around often is the energy cost of one Visa transaction also a very rough estimatewhich is orders of magnitude smaller than that of one Bitcoin transaction.
But for Bitcoin, the transactions are not the problem. In fact, you could theoretically run Bitcoin's entire network on a dozen year old PCs. But it's important to point out that the fact that Bitcoin is currently an enormous energy drain is not due to some irreparable flaw in Bitcoin's protocol. Bitcoin can run more efficiently; it could probably run more efficiently than Visa as it doesn't require offices, staff and other overhead energy costs.
One project Bitcoin could take cues from is Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency right now. According to Digiconomist, Ethereum uses roughly three times less energy than Bitcoin; and yet there are twice as much transactions per day on Ethereum's network. And even that could get a lot better in the near future, as Ethereum's development team plans to gradually switch to a completely different mechanism of verifying transactions. Called proof-of-stake, it replaces the current system, called proof-of-work also used by Bitcoin.
Instead of having miners solving complex math calculations, it would reward owning the coins. The concept isn't implemented in Ethereum yet read here for a detailed explanation but if it does work as intended, the energy costs, compared to proof-of-work, would be orders of magnitude smaller. Bitcoin's developers aren't looking to switch to proof-of-stake very soon, but they are working on a solution called Lightning Network that would ideally vastly increase the number of transactions on the network without the need for additional hash power.
So is Bitcoin's lust for energy just a temporary google mining bitcoin vs litecoin that will easily go away? Ethereum's leadership has successfully implemented major changes on the network in the past without many problems.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, hasn't been able to implement a far more simple upgrade for years, as any upgrade needs a consensus of nearly all users of the network or a potentially dangerous hard fork. And Lightning Network, as promising as it is, is just a concept at this stage.
But Bitcoin's problems aren't insurmountable. The solutions are already out there. Sooner or later, Bitcoin will have to adapt. If it doesn't, in the long run some other cryptocoin will solve it and take its place.
Bitcoin has the first-mover advantage, but that quickly wears off when everyone else is leaner, faster, and more efficient than you.
Google mining bitcoin vs litecoin that's perfectly alright; Bitcoin and its energy woes might be forgotten some day, but cryptocurrencies are here to stay. Google mining bitcoin vs litecoin using cookies to improve your experience. Click Here to find out more. Business Like Follow Follow. Well, it probably isn't. But, long-term, it might not be that big of a deal. Tesla's Solar Roof tiles are out
To continue reading this article, please exit incognito mode or log in. Visitors are allowed 3 free articles per month without a subscriptionand private browsing prevents us from counting how many stories you've read. We hope you understand, google mining bitcoin vs litecoin consider subscribing for unlimited online access. In fact, it only serves to highlight some of the shortcomings of the currency. That sounds like a lot. On the CIA figures, the value of bitcoins hashed into existence is similar to the broad money total for Uzbekistani soms.
With apologies to Tashkent, the value of soms and bitcoins, and the number of people for whom they are relevant pieces of information in the world of modern finance, both round to zero.
In fact, its rising price even hints at some of its troubles. As the New York Times reported last yeara small band of Chinese companies have effectively gained control of the currency.
As domestic currency value has fallen, so demand for the digital currency has risen, driving up its value. But such centralization is unwelcome for many users of the currency outside of China. And change is what it probably needs. If the currency is to grow—which, as the Financial Times argues, it clearly needs to—it will need a technical redesign.
Currently, Bitcoin google mining bitcoin vs litecoin only tolerate up to 7 transactions per second, which is tiny compared to the many thousands that, say, Visa can handle. The Chinese companies mining Bitcoin could, in theory, join forces to take advantage of the majority loophole.
Given the country in which google mining bitcoin vs litecoin most prolific miners operate, the news could raise fears about state control. The future of home movies is google mining bitcoin vs litecoin them in 3-D and playing them back in VR. Men are less likely to do it than women, and mixed-sex pairs least likely of all. A new prototype gets at how—and why—manufacturers and product designers might benefit from a blockchain.
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Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world. Litecoin is an open source, global payment network that is fully decentralized without any central authorities.
Mathematics secures the network and empowers individuals to control their own finances. Litecoin google mining bitcoin vs litecoin faster transaction confirmation times and improved storage efficiency than the leading math-based currency. With substantial industry support, trade volume and liquidity, Litecoin is a proven medium of commerce complementary to Bitcoin.
Find support across a growing number of Litecoin communities:. Find general information as well as a list of services and exchanges that support Litecoin at the Litecoin Wiki.
Up-to-date network statistics can be found at Litecoin Block Explorer Charts. Source code for Litecoin Core and related projects are available on GitHub. The software is released in a transparent process that allows for independent verification of binaries and their corresponding source code. The Litecoin blockchain is capable of handling higher transaction volume than its counterpart - Bitcoin.
Due to more frequent block generation, the network supports more transactions without a need to modify the software in the future. As a result, merchants get faster confirmation times, while still having ability to wait for more confirmations when selling bigger ticket items.
Wallet encryption allows google mining bitcoin vs litecoin to secure your wallet, so that you can view transactions and your account balance, but are required to enter your password before spending litecoins. This provides protection from wallet-stealing viruses and trojans as well as a sanity check before sending payments. Miners are currently awarded with 25 new litecoins per block, an amount which gets halved roughly every 4 years everyblocks.
The Litecoin network is therefore scheduled to produce 84 million litecoins, which is 4 times as many currency units as Bitcoin. Community Find support across a growing number of Litecoin communities: Resources Find general google mining bitcoin vs litecoin as well as a list of services and exchanges that support Litecoin at the Litecoin Wiki.
Blockchain The Litecoin blockchain is capable of handling higher transaction volume than its counterpart - Bitcoin. Wallet Encryption Wallet encryption allows you to google mining bitcoin vs litecoin your wallet, so that you can view transactions and your account balance, but are required to enter your password before spending litecoins. Mining Reward Miners are currently awarded with 25 new litecoins per block, an amount which gets halved roughly every 4 years everyblocks.
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