Can Photonic Chips Save Bitcoin?
Cryptocurrencies are famously energy hungry. So some researchers say the answer is a more energy-efficient form of computing.
By Emerging Technology from the arXiv
When the Bitcoin bubble burst at the end of 2017, the cryptocurrency’s value dropped from over $17,000 to less than $7,000 in just a few days. Global news coverage suggested that the currency boom appeared to have ended abruptly.
But as Bitcoin’s value dropped, something strange happened. The rate at which bitcoins were being created — or mined — increased dramatically. The reason? Despite the fall in value, bitcoin mining was still extremely profitable. In other words, the cost of mining — the price of the hardware plus the energy to run it — was still less than the value of the coins it produced.
This mining boom continued for almost a year. Then in November 2018, Bitcoin’s value dropped dramatically again, this time from about $6,500 to less than $3,500.
This pulled the rug from under many miners. Suddenly bitcoins were no longer valuable enough to cover their energy costs and the mines were shuttered. For the first time in the cryptocurrency’s history, the rate of mining collapsed, falling from 60 exa-hashes per second to just 35.
