Date: Tue, 18 May 2021 07:46:21 +0000
To: Anton Ragin <anton@etc-group.com>,
 Bitcoin Protocol Discussion <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>
From: ZmnSCPxj <ZmnSCPxj@protonmail.com>
Reply-To: ZmnSCPxj <ZmnSCPxj@protonmail.com>
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Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Proposal: Force to do nothing for first 9 minutes
	to save 90% of mining energy
Precedence: list

Good morning Anton,

> >> 4. My counter-proposal to the community to address energy consumption
> >> problems would be *to encourage users to allow only 'green miners' pro=
cess>> their transaction.* In particular:
> >>...
> >> (b) Should there be some non-profit organization(s) certifying green m=
iners
> >> and giving them cryptographic certificates of conformity (either usage=
 of
> >> green energy or purchase of offsets), users could encrypt their
> >> transactions and submit to mempool in such a format that *only green m=
iners>> would be able to decrypt and process them*.
>
> >Hello centralisation. Might as well just have someone sign miner keys, a=
nd get
> >rid of PoW entirely...
> >No, it is not centralization -=C2=A0
>
> No, it is not centralization, as:
>
> (a) different miners could use different standards / certifications for '=
green' status, there are many already;
> (b) it does not affect stability of the network in a material way, rather=
 creates small (12.5% of revenue max) incentive to move to green sources of=
 energy (or buy carbon credits) and get certified - miners who would choose=
 to run dirty energy will still be able to do so.
> and
>
> (c) nothing is being proposed beyond=C2=A0what is already possible - Antp=
ool can go green today, and solicit users to send them signed transactions =
directly instead of adding them to a public mempool, under the pretext that=
 it would make the transfer 'greener'. What is being proposed is some commu=
nity effort to standardize=C2=A0& promote this approach, because if we mana=
ge to make Bitcoin green(er) - we will remove what many commentators=C2=
=A0see as the last barrier / biggest risk to even wider Bitcoin adoption.


The point of avoiding centralization is to avoid authorities --- who can en=
d up being bribeable or hackable single points-of-failure, and which would =
potentially be able to kill Bitcoin as a whole from a single attack point.

Adding an authority which filters miners works directly against this goal, =
regardless of however you define "centralization" --- centralization is not=
 the root issue here, the authority *is*.

One can observe that "more renewable" energy sources will, economically, be=
 cheaper (in the long run) anyway, and you do not have to add anything to g=
o towards "more green" energy resources.

After all, a "non-renewable" resource is simply a resource that has a lower=
 supply (it cannot be renewed) than a "more renewable" energy source.
There is only so much energy that is stored in coal and oil on Earth, but t=
he sun has a much larger total mass than Earth itself, thus it is a "more r=
enewable" energy resource than coal and oil.
Economically, this implies that "greener" energy resources will be cheaper =
in the long run, simply by price being a function of supply.

In short: trust the invisible hand.

We already know that lots of miners already operate in places where energy =
prices have bottomed due to oversupply due to technological improvements in=
 capturing energy that used to be dissipated as waste heat.
What is needed is to spread this knowledge to others, not mess with the des=
ign of Bitcoin at a fundamental level and risk introducing unexpected side =
effects (bugs).


Regards,
ZmnSCPxj