this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
202 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37738 readers
52 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah. Right now, the cost of a Bitcoin transaction is around $65 US. That price includes all of the expenditures that the miners have made on resources (electricity, water, rental costs for the space they're using, hardware depreciation, etc.), as well as whatever bit of profits it takes to keep miners in business. That puts a cap on whatever environmental impact the transaction is having.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So if it costs $65 for a transaction then why isn't that the transaction fee? people would be loaing money if cost is more than the fees

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Bitcoin is inflationary, it's generating new Bitcoin with every block and issuing that to the miners. That new Bitcoin combines with the transaction fees to pay the miners.

[–] JWBananas@startrek.website 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Bitcoin is deflationary. There is a hard limit on the total number of bitcoins that will ever exist. Every so often, the reward for mining a block is halved. Eventually there will be effectively zero reward for mining at all.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Maybe in the long run. However, when you want to actually calculate how much each transaction costs, you need to account for the fact that right now Bitcoin is inflationary. It won't stop issuing new tokens until around 2140 AD, assuming no hard forks happen to modify that issuance strategy in the meantime.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So mining is the bulk cost not the transactions. because my last bitcoin fee was like $10 or something

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 2 points 11 months ago

Yes. If you're wanting to know how many resources mining a transaction takes, that's the value you need to look at. The block reward effectively goes into subsidizing the transaction fees that are being paid.