Bitcoin Has An Energy Problem That Solar Power Can’t Fix

Dear Friend,

The Bitcoin bubble can wreck the economy. It's technology can wreck our energy supply and the climate.    The Bitcoin mining network is consuming about 0.14% of the world’s electricity, an amount equivalent to the nation of Serbia. Another calculation by the Long Future Foundation’s Cryptoplanet Analysis suggests that the Bitcoin mining network is currently producing about 14 million tonnes CO2 per annum. 

However, the blockchain technology that the bitcoin put forward has evolved and is evolving. Even bitcoin itself can be saved by tweaking its algorithm. Even if bitcoin fails, the blockchain technology has immense potential. Please don't thorw away the baby with the bath water! We've a long way to go. 

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew

Editor

Countercurrents.org

Bitcoin Has An Energy Problem That Solar Power Can’t Fix

by Guy Lane 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/12/17/bitcoin-has-an-energy-problem-that-solar-power-cant-fix/

At time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at US$15,000, and according to Digiconomist, the Bitcoin mining network is consuming about 0.14% of the world’s electricity, an amount equivalent to the nation of Serbia. Another calculation by the Long Future Foundation’s Cryptoplanet Analysis suggests that the Bitcoin mining network is currently producing about 14 million tonnes CO2 per annum.

Neutral Athletes: Russia, Drugs And The Olympics

by Dr Binoy Kampmark

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/12/17/neutral-athletes-russia-drugs-and-the-olympics/

Having the International Olympic Committee banish a state from a competition that is itself compromised is a truly tall order.    It reeks, by its nature, of falsely applied judgment.  In the case of the Russia ban for the Winter Olympics to be held in Pyeongchang, the pot has assumed judgment over the kettle.

Trump’s Jerusalem Decision Reveals U.S. Reality At Its Ugliest

by Jim Miles

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/12/17/trumps-jerusalem-decision-reveals-u-s-reality-at-its-ugliest/

After Trump announced his decision on Jerusalem being the capital of Israel to be signaled by moving the U.S. embassy there, the condemnation came swift and strong, as well as the praise coming swift and strong from those supporting the decision – in the latter case mainly the Christian evangelicals and the Israelis.

Ahwazis Protest Over Iran Regime’s Land, Water Theft

by Rahim Hamid 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/12/17/ahwazis-protest-over-iran-regimes-land-water-theft/

For the second week in a row, Ahwazi demonstrators poured into the streets across the Arab region of south-western Iran earlier this week to protest against the endemic abuse and injustice they are subjected to by the Iranian regime.

South Sudan: A Premature State?

by Ashish Singh 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/12/17/south-sudan-a-premature-state/

South Sudan is a typical example of modern day media saturation, there are only so many cries for UN intervention, only so many pleas for aid and only so much bad news people can absorb before saturation is achieved. Since independence and the follow South Sudanese civil war and various famines there has been so much negative coverage that one has no hope of keeping track. So what is the situation at the end of 2017?

What Was Verifiably Great About America: Fragments Of A Memoir Set To A Musical Soundtrack

by Phil Rockstroh 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/12/17/what-was-verifiably-great-about-america-fragments-of-a-memoir-set-to-a-musical-soundtrack/

If the US is great in any regard, it is not because of the psychotic belief in its own exceptionalism or its risible grandiosity involving the claim to be the one and only “indispensable nation.” Conversely, its best quality is evinced in the voices of the country’s economically bereft rabble, as expressed in the blues, in jazz, folk, country/western, and hip hop music, in which the powerless find a voice that moves the heart by inducing the soul to be able to penetrate the thick walls of shame that the class-based capitalist prison state imposes on the laboring class.

Denials: National And Personal

by Dr Arshad M Khan 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/12/17/denials-national-and-personal/

We live in a world of denial:  The Burmese deny the Rohingya; they call them Bengali even though they have lived in Burma for centuries — some say as early as the 11th century.  Even the Pope, afraid of the consequences to a small Christian minority, shied away during his visit, confining himself to the all-encompassing phrase, the rights of minorities.

Indian Nation-State Becomes A Prison House For Minorities

by Jaspal Singh Sidhu 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/12/17/indian-nation-state-becomes-a-prison-house-for-minorities/

Nations have extracted heavy price which human history never paid before. While this model has begun losing its viability in Europe where it had grown up with the rise of Scots, Basques, Catalonians, Quebecois and Kurds, the Hindutva forces in India are up in arms to raise ‘Hindu Rashtra’ an Indian version of Islamic Pakistan. It is recipe for violence in near future. Against this background, the minorities and deprived people are left with no choice but to come together to thwart the onslaught of Hindutva forces.