Popular Science: What is Bitcoin and how does "mining" work? Why is the power consumption increasing?

In 20021year, a research data from Cambridge University showed that the power consumption caused by bitcoin mining had reached 134.89 TWh. If bitcoin mining is compared to a country, it ranks 27th among all countries in the world, which is equivalent to the total electricity consumption of Malaysia in one year.

What's going on with bitcoin mining? Why does it need to consume so much electricity?

We know that to get bitcoin, we need to "mine". In real life, mining needs excavators, drilling rigs and other large equipment. In the virtual world, mining refers to the use of computer computing to obtain bitcoin. It stands to reason that computer calculation does not need to consume so much electricity. Why is it so expensive to dig bitcoin?

Indeed, when Bitcoin was just born, its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, developed 50 bitcoins with only one home computer, with little natural power consumption.

However, as more and more people flood into the bitcoin market, its mining is becoming more and more difficult. This is related to the distribution model of Bitcoin. So, how is Bitcoin issued?

First of all, at the beginning of the birth of Bitcoin mine, the reserves were limited to death, with a total of only 2 1 10,000 pieces, distributed in various mining areas. At first, every time miners found a mining area, they would get 50 bitcoin rewards. However, for every 265,438+00,000 "mining areas", the number of awarded bitcoins will be halved.

To put it simply, at first we used only one computer to dig a bitcoin for one day, and then it gradually became two computers for two days and four computers for four days. The difficulty of mining has doubled, and the power consumption has naturally doubled. This process will continue until 2 140 and 2 1 10,000 bitcoins are all released. Bitcoin was only 13 years old, and it consumed so much electricity. It is conceivable that the future bitcoin market will be a bottomless pit.

It is precisely because of this mechanism that as a mine owner, the only thing he can do to beat others is to buy more mining machines that run faster, so as to grab more bitcoin in front of others.

As the first generation mining machine, the home computer obviously can't meet the demand of mining, so the miners' production tools are constantly innovating, from the initial CPU calculation to GPU calculation, and then to the production of special mining machine calculation. The mining machine is equipped with a special "mining wafer", which is usually operated by burning graphics cards and chips.

In this process, not only the power consumption brought by the hard disk operation, but also the heat energy generated during the operation will lead to the shutdown (crash) of the whole mine. Therefore, this also includes the power consumed by the power supply fan and the chassis fan. At present, the electricity consumption of a single mining machine is about 35 degrees, and the electricity consumption of a mine can even meet the electricity demand of ordinary people for a lifetime.

So, what is the value of bitcoin that miners have "worked hard" to spend countless power resources? Let's take a look at the background of the birth of Bitcoin. In 2008, the subprime mortgage crisis broke out in an all-round way, and the Federal Reserve had to use loose quantitative policies to deal with the next crisis. In the face of the dollar that keeps printing money, depreciation has become its fate.

At the end of the same year, "Dragon Slayer" Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System", which clearly expounded the concept of Bitcoin, and he tried to challenge the hegemony of the dollar with electronic money. In June 5438+the following year 10, under his single hand, the "creation block" of Bitcoin was born.

At that time, because few people knew about bitcoin, it was only circulated in a small range among programmers, so it was of little value. There is also a classic story. A programmer obtained 1000 bitcoins by mining. So he bought two pizzas with these bitcoins.

But later, due to its rebellious spirit, Bitcoin quickly gained recognition in the geek circle (that is, technology enthusiasts). With their support, Bitcoin has gradually gained a foothold in the world. Even in the dark world, people regard it as the "dollar" in the virtual world, which is used for transactions in various black industries.

With the continuous expansion of popularity and scope of use, the price has gradually become magical. All the way to the $3,000 mark. By 2020, the Fed will release water again. The amount of currency issued this year alone accounts for 2 1% of the total dollar circulation. Bitcoin also ushered in the highlight moment of its "currency generation", breaking through the unit price of 68,000 US dollars in one fell swoop.

However, contrary to Satoshi Nakamoto's original idea, with the increasing number of bitcoin fans, it has gradually divorced from the concept of money, and even from the perspective of labor theory of value, the value of bitcoin can only be recognized as "0". First of all, at the beginning of the birth of Bitcoin, human society did not need such a thing, it was not just needed. Second, the process of miners digging gold cannot be measured by labor. In short, Bitcoin has been out of our commodity circulation system 13 years since its birth.

In short, bitcoin has no practical value, and the current high price is just a speculative bubble.

If bitcoin must be said to be valuable, it may only be because of its decentralization, anonymity, and difficulty in losing, which makes it have the value of artificial digital assets. Once it returns to its original attribute-currency, it will be strangled by mainstream currency. So the biggest value of bitcoin is probably the wasted electricity bill and the bill of the mining machine when mining!

In the middle of last year, the central bank issued an announcement and interviewed a number of mainstream financial institutions, reiterating that China cracked down on virtual currency speculation, including bitcoin. Why must China crack down on bitcoin speculation?

The first is to consume power resources. As we said before, the power consumption of the bitcoin market will only increase and increase. If it is allowed to flood in China, it will inevitably squeeze the strength of other industries and affect the development of the domestic economy.

In fact, Bitcoin has already invaded China, causing a great waste of resources.

It is reported that before May 20021year, nearly 70% of the world's bitcoin mines were in China. The mine owner will go to the hydropower station around Yunguichuan to buy cheap electricity during the rainy season. In the dry season, they will go to the northwest, such as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and other places where coal is relatively cheap to buy thermal power. It is predicted that by 2024, bitcoin mining in China will consume the annual power generation of 3.5 Three Gorges dams. Fortunately, after China's full suppression, the Bitcoin mining area has gradually withdrawn from China.

Secondly, the application scenario of Bitcoin is generally illegal capital operation, and its anonymity has become a natural umbrella for black industries such as money laundering, drug trading and fraudulent income. If China wants to crack down on the trend of eliminating evils, it must first crack down on the tool of interest exchange, that is, cut off the conduction chain of Bitcoin.

The third and most important point is to defend China's monetary sovereignty. Nowadays, worldwide, the economic situation is turbulent, and bitcoin will increase the financial risks of the country and even the world. Even these small bitcoins are enough to bankrupt a country.

For example, in September of 20021year, El Salvador, a small country in Central America, set off a sense of existence around the world because bitcoin was designated as legal tender. However, this year, the big bear market of Bitcoin has cost El Salvador tens of millions of dollars.

Some people even say that it is very likely to become the first country to go bankrupt because of "speculation".

It can be seen that whether for a country or an ordinary person, the behavior of "speculating money" is no different from the essence of gambling, which will corrode a person's spirit and consume the virtue of a nation's hard work. Therefore, it is absolutely wise for China to resolutely crack down on Bitcoin.