miners will only be able to earn via transaction fees.
since ever,the world only became more networked and we communicate constantly.
to avoid bitcoin mining consuming more and more energy
it seems plausible for people to collectively decide to pay no or only small transaction fees
everyone wins, only miners loose, so miners would stop mining
this reduces the difficulty and make small fees worth it for some to continue mining.
to me it sounds like this would naturally make bitcoin consume little to no energy.
of course - attackers:
somebody could now use the opportunity (because "security" is low), to start mining
they would mine not for bitcoin mining rewards or fees, but to get 50%+ mining power
they would be malicious somehow to their advantage, but in such a case
everyone would notice and join the mining process with their machines
to undo the malicious activity
it spikes mining difficulty temporarily, but ppl dont wanna lose or give up the bitcoin
the mining of the people anhilates/undoes all advantages a temporary attacker gained or had
this disincentivizes potenttial attackers from doing it in the first place
=> thus the energy consumption or total amount of miners can again or always stay low.
all people need to do is refuse to pay high mining fees after bitcoin rewards went to 0 and bitcoins price stabelized. This actually gets even easier with bitcoin lightning networks, which can be used by people who established trust between each other for extended periods of time while bitocin mining and fees spike and return back to normal.
Lightinng Networks allow people to just wait a bit longer until they settle again on chain.
I am assuming that lightning networks between people will work well enough so transaction volume competing for blocks will not again increase fees to incentivize more miners and thus again increasing energy consumption
thoughts about built-in incentives
...just a thought about bitcoin.
of course - attackers:
all people need to do is refuse to pay high mining fees after bitcoin rewards went to 0 and bitcoins price stabelized. This actually gets even easier with bitcoin lightning networks, which can be used by people who established trust between each other for extended periods of time while bitocin mining and fees spike and return back to normal.
Lightinng Networks allow people to just wait a bit longer until they settle again on chain.
I am assuming that lightning networks between people will work well enough so transaction volume competing for blocks will not again increase fees to incentivize more miners and thus again increasing energy consumption