This is my Closed Loop Ecosystem. And strangely enough, building a food system changed how I think Proof of Work should work.
Bitcoin mining should be the compost machine of the energy economy.
In my Closed Loop Ecosystem, I use compostoponics to extract value from leftovers. But I would never grow tomatoes just to throw them into the compost.
The tomato should feed a person first.
The same principle should apply to Proof of Work.
Energy should first go where it creates the most useful value: homes, food production, industry, computation, AI, storage.
Mining should come last.
Use the solar power that would otherwise be curtailed. Use idle computation. Use the last bit of energy that has nowhere more valuable to go.
Mining should not be profitable enough to make us produce resources specifically to feed the miner.
Because if turning my tomatoes into biogas, generating electricity and mining Bitcoin becomes more profitable than selling those tomatoes to my neighbors, we have created the wrong incentive.
And if mining pays more for computation than useful AI, eventually we will use our computers to produce hashes instead of doing useful work.
A good compost machine makes waste valuable.
A bad compost machine makes it profitable to produce waste.
That is also why I think a future Proof of Work should explore periodically changing or dynamic algorithms. Not merely replacing SHA-256 with another permanent mining industry, but continuously reducing the advantage of specialized hardware and keeping participation possible with ordinary hardware.
Mining doesn't need to be an industry.
It can be the economic bottom layer that catches energy and computation that would otherwise be wasted.
My CLE works because every output tries to become an input somewhere else.
That is the kind of Bitcoin I could put inside the loop.
#Bitcoin #ProofOfWork #BIP110 #ProofOfFood #Decentralization
