Quote:
Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
would I also be right in assuming that if more bitcoins are being transacted more often then the amount of power needed to allow that goes up proportionally?
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It's not quite the direct connection; if every miner chose not to buy new equipment to increase their own hash rate, then the amount of power used remains the same.
But it's human nature that if the fiscal rewards are increasing (especially if its in terms of fiat) then many miners are going to invest in more equipment (and new ones start up) to try to catch that increase, resulting in a new increase of power used, up till the point where it reaches equilibrium of where it's only modestly profitable after accounting for electricity and capital costs.