The amount of energy spent does not depend on number of transactions nor how muc... | Hacker News

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		agedcayenne on Jan 17, 2021 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming ... The amount of energy spent does not depend on number of transactions nor how much is needed to secure the blockchain, it's purely determined by how much miners are willing to spend, which is mostly determined by the bitcoin price. So, if you would expect the amount of energy spent on mining to scale with any variable, it would be trading price and price alone.

jasonlingx on Jan 17, 2021 [–]

This is it. Amount of energy spent = profits from mining / cost of energy.

While price is the main factor affecting profits, fees/volume and the constantly decreasing block reward also play a part.

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