Energy consumed by bitcoin miner

The global electricity consumption used for bitcoin 'mining' has reached a level that there are over 150 countries which consume less electricity in a year. In other words, if bitcoin was a country, at current value, it would stand at 62ndposition in the world in terms of consuming electricity in a year.The global electricity consumption used for 'mining' has reached a level that there are over 150 countries which consume less electricity in a year. In other words, if bitcoin was a country, at current value, it would stand at 62ndposition in the world in terms of consuming electricity in a year.I 

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I has a science teacher, back at school, who, although he was a brilliant science teacher, wasn't to keen on 

To be fair, back in the 1980's evolutionary sciences weren't what they are today, but I think his religious views may have also clouded his views a little so that he didn't delve 

He felt that biological evolution was a ball rolling 

[img source](By Pnapora , CC BY-SA 

In other words, he felt that species evolving naturally and becoming more complex without any external help violated the laws of thermodynamics... mainly that entropy and disorder are 

Entropy increasing is a well established fact. In this word of ours energy and other things follow the path of least resistance and as a result things tend to disorder or decay and become less complex 

Entropy tends to increase, 

At first glance it looks like species that are evolving and becoming more complex violate this 

There is a way however for entropy to decrease and for a system to become more complex. For this to occur the system needs to be an open system. Energy needs to be able to flow into and out of the system, work also need to be done within the system. Life makes use of many open systems, that all do work, they are all 

We can observe this in something we do everyday, when 

By picking up an apple, chewing, swallowing and digesting it, we disorganize the apple. Or internal processes then extract the nutrients from the apple and discard the waste. Our bodies then use the extracted nutrients to build cells and fuel 

Our bodies (the system) have taken in energy from outside (the apple) the system and used that energy to drive the work processes (digestion, metabolism). The metabolic process(work) has in turn increased the order (built cells etc.). To increase order you must also remove disorder (waste). This disorder (waste) is then removed from the system by going to the 

This also applies to 

The planet earth is also not a closed system. It receives energy in the form of sunlight everyday, it radiates or looses energy in the form of heat that radiates out into space 

Life has many means of tapping into this energy flow. The organisms and species that are able to extract these resources most effectively are the ones that do best and ultimately survive. The competition between species for these resources is the work process and driving force behind the increasing order and complexity we see in