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Opinion: Bill Walton, Cold Hard Cash

How much pollution does one Bitcoin create?
20190119 smoke walton

I was reading the other day about data mining as it related to the Bitcoin and in particular about another data mining enterprise setting up in Quebec where they have an excess of inexpensive hydro-generated electricity. Do not ask me to explain the theory of block chains and the use of cryptographic hash functions. My practical knowledge of linking data goes back to the age of relational databases – which at the time seemed pretty neat.

The thing about data mining for this ethereal monetary unit called a Bitcoin is that it now takes a really, really large amount of computing power to create these ever-growing block chain data sets. Computers create heat. Even your little communication device or hand-held gaming device creates a little heat every time it does something. The banks of computers used in data mining produce so much heat that they need special cooling systems - as do the ‘Cloud’ storage systems and other large data processing centers.

It was not the amount of electricity used by the billions of computer chips/devices (they now apparently out-number the people on earth) that alarmed me, but the reconsideration of my conspiracy theory of global warming. I had, rightly, I think, often said that the global warming/ climate change thing was the result of too many people. 10 billion of us create a lot of heat just by our existence.

Setting aside the over-population issue (we apparently need even more people to make ourselves richer, more secure and ultimately, happier) I wonder if scientists have calculated the amount of heat from computing devices and how it is affecting global warming. Sure, there may be a net zero sum from electricity generated by wind and solar, except for the heat of transmission lines, that recharges the device’s batteries. However, when we take fossil fuels and turn them into dirt and heat (electricity) one has to assume we have changed the balance of heating and cooling of the earth. A barrel of oil or a tonne of coal lying benignly under the ground has little effect on the climate methinks.

However, forget my conspiracy theories – except about the Bitcoin mining. The premise behind the value of a Bitcoin is that there is value in the block chain data – or more correctly, the value in the work performed by computers to create a new block of data. Create a new block and you or your computing bank earns a Bitcoin. You don’t get a real coin or even a plastic or paper bill, because there is no physical Bitcoin. You have to get your head around the fact that you have created nothing but an imaginary unit of value that can be traded for goods or services to someone who also believes in Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies.

I guess it is kind of like the old Gold Standard where you held a piece of paper that said it was worth something because your government said they would exchange it for gold bullion if push came to shove. We did away with that concept, relying on each government to issue money as it saw fit. This did not work out too well in many cases – and eventually, this led people to create borderless cryptocurrency as a means of exchange and payment unfettered from political boundaries.

Aside from the fact that I can’t get my head around the cryptocurrencies and the amount of energy used to make them, I might accept them if I could just touch a Bitcoin. I mean, I like the feel of cold, hard cash. Jingling a few loonies and toonies in your pant pocket is even better than rubbing some of those new-fangled plastic bills together as you try to separate them at the cashier’s workstation.

‘Cold hard cash’ has a nice ring to it but the saying has been around for a long time. Back in the days of yore merchants used pieces of gold or silver as a medium of exchange. However as these pure metals were a little on the soft side and subject to wear, the merchants and bankers began pressing alloy coins that were harder, and apparently, cooler to the touch than gold pieces.

Sure it takes a little heat to make a loonie but I have to admit I do like to feel of cold hard cash. Plastic cards – not so much. Just saying.





Bill Walton

About the Author: Bill Walton

Retired from City of North Bay in 2000. Writer, poet, columnist
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