> I'm pretty sure that the only reason you need to keep adding and adding ever more capacity is to prevent someone else coming along and doing the 51% attack, right?Other than that, adding capability doesn't benefit the network, it burns a lot of power as people effectively just burn electricity to try to increase their share of a fixed payout.
Sure, if you want to efficiently allocate resources, all bitcoin miners could get together as a cartel and limit the overall hash rate to 1Mhash/hr, and collectively the bitcoin transactions network would consume a lot less power.
However, the temptation would always be there to add a little extra hash power to the network and network to claim more of the mined blocks and transaction fees. And pretty soon you'll be back where we are today, with each person acting in their own selfish interest, addiing as much hashing power as they can afford to run to get as big a share of a fixed pie as they possibly can.
Sure, if you want to efficiently allocate resources, all bitcoin miners could get together as a cartel and limit the overall hash rate to 1Mhash/hr, and collectively the bitcoin transactions network would consume a lot less power.
However, the temptation would always be there to add a little extra hash power to the network and network to claim more of the mined blocks and transaction fees. And pretty soon you'll be back where we are today, with each person acting in their own selfish interest, addiing as much hashing power as they can afford to run to get as big a share of a fixed pie as they possibly can.