Archive: https://archive.today/6Wvyg From the post: >>You’ve probably heard that Bitcoin uses more electricity than all of Switzerland. You might also have heard that miners are “solving complex equations.” One of these statements is true. The other is nonsense. Neither explains what mining actually does, and they divert from a more interesting question: whether or not Bitcoin’s consumption is even a flaw to be fixed. In this guide, I’ll use interactive diagrams to demonstrate what the miners are really doing with all that electricity. We’ll discover how mathematics and game theory guarantee Bitcoin’s security and issuance schedule, and explore how the entire system represents something which was thought to be impossible before 2009.