I disagree that the optimal network doesn't waste any energy - any hash attempt that fails is a waste of energy. As more people compete and the difficulty goes up, more and more energy is consumed.
I understand that this is the way BitCoin protects itself. I want to be clear that I am saying I think this is a bad way of doing things. As someone that understands a bit about crypto - most crypto schemes that are hard to break are not hard to break because the encrypting device has worked so hard at encrypting them. They're hard to break because they have been designed in a mathematically sound way.
I hope this endless grind is not something inherent to the idea of decentralised crypto-currency, but if it is I don't think the decentralisation aspect is worth it, and as we see in this article it can be illusory anyway and the amounts of energy involved are pretty huge.
>> Furthermore, all energy expended mining is eventually transformed into heat
Well, there's always the conspiracy theory that the bitcoin network (and the blockchain) is a harness created by the NSA to crack encryption around the planet.
I understand that this is the way BitCoin protects itself. I want to be clear that I am saying I think this is a bad way of doing things. As someone that understands a bit about crypto - most crypto schemes that are hard to break are not hard to break because the encrypting device has worked so hard at encrypting them. They're hard to break because they have been designed in a mathematically sound way.
I hope this endless grind is not something inherent to the idea of decentralised crypto-currency, but if it is I don't think the decentralisation aspect is worth it, and as we see in this article it can be illusory anyway and the amounts of energy involved are pretty huge.
>> Furthermore, all energy expended mining is eventually transformed into heat
This is just such a cop-out!