Some say that bitcoin will become the new reserve currency of the world, while others say issues involving scalability or regulation will eventually get in the way. Although no one can know what will happen, it's still useful to analyze where Bitcoin has been, where it is right now, and where it may go in the future.

Dave Hudson, who is vice president of software architecture at Peernova and previously worked at Qualcomm, was recently interviewed on the Epicenter Bitcoin podcast, where he was asked about his thoughts on the future of mining by co-hosts Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Hudson runs one of the most popular Bitcoin mining blogs at hashingit.com.

Mining is Going to Burn a Lot of Energy

Although it's unclear if the environmental costs associated with Bitcoin mining are something that could threaten the longevity of the network, it's clear that Hudson takes issue with the amount of energy that is spent on hashing power. These sorts of environmental concerns have inspired researchers to seek out alternatives to proof-of-work, such as proof-of-stake, but it appears that Hudson does not think anybody has found the proper solution. He noted:

"Mining, intrinsically, is something that's going to burn a lot of energy, so it has some implications because of that. I don't know of anybody who's yet come up with a good proposal of how you avoid that as a problem . . . Trying to find solutions to that would be extraordinarily useful."