Bitcoin Q&A: The 14nm limit, decentralization, and renewable-energy mining

3 years ago
4

Keywords/phrases: Do you see the 14 nanometre limit of transistors as a good thing for decentralization? There's been an enormous increase in the hashing capacity of the Bitcoin network and now it's slammed into Moore's Wall. It's a very good thing because it extends the shelf-life of mining equipment from 2-3 months to almost 2 years. Until now, the determinant of success in mining was how many kilometres you were from the semiconductor fabrication lab and how fast you could hook it up to 50 megawatts of electricity. With a 2-year shelf-life, you can re-decentralize mining. Renewable energy with cycles of demand, using extra megawatt hours with low consumption that would be lost anyway to mine bitcoin. Bitcoin is a battery on a virtual blockchain.

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