Dhruv Bansal on Bitcoin
From Blockchain Mind Candy: Increasingly Esoteric Applications for Blockchains - Dhruv Bansal · · Refactor Camp
“I introduce the nakamoto ratio as the fraction of world electricity used in proof-of-work to secure the money supply; currently, it's very small but will grow, and at some point power companies may start mining Bitcoin as a way to monetize excess energy.”
On , Dhruv Bansal, Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer at HUB GROUP INC -CL A, spoke about Bitcoin during Blockchain Mind Candy: Increasingly Esoteric Applications for Blockchains - Dhruv Bansal on Refactor Camp.
About Dhruv Bansal
In a September 2018 talk, Dhruv Bansal discussed a range of blockchain applications, describing Bitcoin as "sound money" that he believes will become the basis of the global economy. He introduced the concept of a "nakamoto ratio" to measure the fraction of world electricity used in proof-of-work mining, and argued that Bitcoin's energy usage could grow significantly before becoming an appreciable fraction of world energy. Bansal suggested that power companies may eventually mine Bitcoin as a way to monetize excess energy, and stated that the entire energy production apparatus could turn to mining Bitcoin. Bansal also discussed the Lightning Network as a bi-directional payment channel network that allows fast transactions without consensus on every payment, and proposed using a similar channel-based routing mechanism to build a distributed mesh network for telecommunications. He contrasted proof-of-work with proof-of-stake, stating that proof-of-work provides a level of security and immutability that cannot be trivially manufactured, while calling proof-of-stake a reasonable system for applications that do not require extreme robustness. Bansal noted potential societal implications of Bitcoin adoption, including the possibility that most people's savings could be reduced to zero if Bitcoin becomes highly valued, which he described as a less fair world.