RE:RE:RE:RE:BitcoinLooks like Bitcoin is this weeks , or perhaps months, big thing. For a couple weeks it was that Gamesomething.
I had some time so this is what I found.
For Bitcoin it seems to take 50,000 kwh to make one coin. I have no idea how accurate the person who figured this is. He sounded smart. In a low electricty cost place that would be $5,000 worth of electricty. Everyone agreed that most are made in China, between 60 to 80%. About 900 are mined a day in China, it seems (the numbers are less than reliable) so that means Chinese miners are selling about $45 million worth to mostly western countries a day. $1.35 billion a month. Not real big money. Makes sense that China would be making these things,they make most everything that western countries consume these days, and they would be very happy with the margin, costs being, at today's price, only 10% of sales. Way better margin than running a factory making gadgets I would think.
And some parts of China , like where lots of the Bitcoins are mined have a surplus of green electricty so maybe the carbon thing isn't so bad. Looks like just another way for money to flow from dumb westerners to smart Asians.
A single transaction with Bitcoin , I guess buying or selling, uses 640 kwh. In our cheap electricty place that would be $64. And if that electricty is produced dirty: coal or 'natural' gas, then the amount of C02 produced would be equivalent to 670,000 visa transactions.
Sounds like China is clamping down on miners, which is perhaps why Bitcoins are scarce.