数字货币的能源消耗及其经济效益的比较性研究

Comparative Analysis of the Energy Consumption and the Economic Benefits of Digital Research

在当今世界各国努力实现碳中和的背景下,能源消耗是目前影响和制约全球数字货币发展的重要因素之一。中本聪发表了论文《比特币:一种点对点式的电子现金系统》,由此以比特币为代表的数字货币开始出现,并逐渐进入了大众视野。数字货币是采用区块链技术运行,区块链系统中的各个网络节点通过计算竞争来获取记账权,获得记账权的节点得到比特币奖励。正是由于这种激励机制,鼓励矿工进行重复计算,消耗了大量能源。数字货币的技术基础与运行原理都决定了其在发展过程中必然会消耗大量能源,这种巨大的能源消耗衍生出了碳排放与电子垃圾问题,这对环境造成了一定的影响。从比较的角度看,如果将同等能源消耗替换性运用于黄金开采和工业生产,可以发现比特币挖矿的耗电量、碳足迹均高于黄金开采和工业生产,但比特币挖矿收入却低于黄金开采和工业生产,说明比特币挖矿的经济效益远低于黄金开采和工业产业。实现数字货币的可持续发展:一是需要寻求其他挖矿机制来代替共识算法,改变数字货币的工作证明机制;二是需要使用清洁能源代替煤炭等不可再生能源进行发电。但是寻求其他挖矿机制和使用清洁能源发电只能减少数字货币挖矿的能源消耗,无法从根本上解决其能源消耗问题,它还有赖于能耗更低的量子计算机等技术的研发和应用。量子计算机是一类遵循量子力学规律进行高速数学和逻辑运算、存储及处理量子信息的物理装置,具有运行速度快、处理信息能力强、能源消耗低等特点。数字货币未来要实现可持续发展,仍有很多工作要做。

In the context of global efforts to achieve carbon neutrality,energy consumption is one of the important issues that affect and restrict the development of global digital currency.Satoshi Nakamoto published the paper"Bitcoin:A peer-to-peer Electronic Cash System",from which the digital currencies represented by Bitcoin began to appear,and gradually entered the public view.Digital currency is operated by block-chain technology.Each network node in the block-chain system obtains the accounting right through computing competition,and the node that obtains the accounting right is rewarded by Bitcoin.It is precisely because of this incentive mechanism that miners are encouraged to repeat the calculation and consume a lot of energy.Both the technical basis and operation principle of digital currency determine that it will inevitably consume a lot of energy in the process of development.This huge energy consumption has the problem of carbon emissions and e-waste problems,which has a certain impact on the environment.From a comparative point of view,if the same energy consumption replacement use in gold mining and industrial economic benefits,can be found that the currency mining power consumption,carbon footprint are higher than gold mining and industry,but the currency mining income is lower than gold mining and industrial industry,that the economic benefit of currency mining is far lower than the gold mining and industrial industry.To achieve the sustainable development of digital currency,it is necessary to seek other mining mechanisms to replace consensus algorithms and change the working proof mechanism of digital currency.Secondly,it is necessary to use clean energy to replace non-renewable energy sources such as coal for power generation.However,seeking other mining mechanisms and the use of clean energy generation can only reduce the energy consumption of digital currency mining,but cannot fundamentally solve its energy consumption problem.It also depends on the research and development and application of technologies such as quantum computers with lower energy consumption.Quantum computer is a kind of physical device that follows the law of quantum mechanics to conduct high-speed mathematical and logical operation,store and process quantum information.It has the characteristics of fast operation speed,strong information processing ability and low energy consumption.There is still a lot of work to be done to be sustainable in the future.