China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining • Hacker News Board

Re: China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining

#11

Post by isoprophlex » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:38 AM UTC

tbabb wrote: post #6

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

I am personally of the opinion that China swiftly killing off its cryptocurrency mining industry overnight would be to the great benefit of humanity. The sheer amount of electricity it wastes is an environmental disaster.

Agreed. Shutting down participation in the planet's largest pyramid scheme doesn't have a lot of downside.

Can't agree more. Also I am getting pretty sick of the impact crypto trading is having on office conversations. All I hear these days are inane conversations about getting rich quick. Everyone is an expert in technical analysis these days.

At best, trading these currencies is a zero-sum game where you take money from others without providing any intrinsic worth to humanity. At worst is a pyramid scheme plain and simple.

Re: China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining

#12

Post by tanilama » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:39 AM UTC

coinGuyBri wrote: post #8

Not gonna happen, they just wanted to stop it and get a piece of the pie. Mining will resume in China

Chinese government hates everything it can't control, especially related to money. That is just a fact.

Re: China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining

#13

Post by secfirstmd » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:46 AM UTC

tbabb wrote: post #6

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

I am personally of the opinion that China swiftly killing off its cryptocurrency mining industry overnight would be to the great benefit of humanity. The sheer amount of electricity it wastes is an environmental disaster.

Agreed. Shutting down participation in the planet's largest pyramid scheme doesn't have a lot of downside.

Couldnt agree more. All that wasted energy and carbon for nothing. All that power that could have been used for something useful like gene folding or SETI.

Re: China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining

#14

Post by olalonde » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:46 AM UTC

tbabb wrote: post #6

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

I am personally of the opinion that China swiftly killing off its cryptocurrency mining industry overnight would be to the great benefit of humanity. The sheer amount of electricity it wastes is an environmental disaster.

Agreed. Shutting down participation in the planet's largest pyramid scheme doesn't have a lot of downside.

Here is what a pyramid scheme is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme

Bitcoin is a distributed database that solves the "Two Generals Problem". Please don't spread misinformation on things you do not understand.

Re: China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining

#15

Post by mathattack » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:50 AM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

I am personally of the opinion that China swiftly killing off its cryptocurrency mining industry overnight would be to the great benefit of humanity. The sheer amount of electricity it wastes is an environmental disaster.

Yes. What's it do to the price of Bitcoin though?

Re: China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining

#16

Post by randyrand » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:50 AM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

I am personally of the opinion that China swiftly killing off its cryptocurrency mining industry overnight would be to the great benefit of humanity. The sheer amount of electricity it wastes is an environmental disaster.

China getting out of Bitcoin would probably help the currency long term IMO.

Re: China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining

#17

Post by ocb » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:52 AM UTC

olalonde wrote: post #14

tbabb wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Shutting down participation in the planet's largest pyramid scheme doesn't have a lot of downside.

Here is what a pyramid scheme is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme Bitcoin is a distributed database that solves the "Two Generals Problem". Please don't spread misinformation on things you do not understand.

Could you clarify why those things are mutually exclusive? And to be clear: I don't know how to feel about Bitcoin and the attention it has received lately.

Re: China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining

#18

Post by joe_the_user » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:01 AM UTC

As to mining farms owned by smaller players, especially those in the mountainous areas of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, simply locating the miners is a near impossible task. A growing number of private owners of hydropower plants in the two regions have begun to operate mining machines themselves as the price of bitcoin has surged, Du Jun, founder of Node Capital, a Beijing-based venture-capital firm focusing on the blockchain industry, told Quartz prior to news of the latest crackdown. “How can you find them?” he asks.

Couldn't they be found by looking at their IP address?

The Chinese state has tremendous resources. It seems like if tell people to stop mining bitcoins, the vast majority would do so and any minority which didn't would be very vulnerable.

Also, it seems like China could stop bitcoin mining by blocking the protocol using the Great Firewall or otherwise filtering bitcoin out.

Re: China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining

#19

Post by llamataboot » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:01 AM UTC

isoprophlex wrote: post #11

tbabb wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Shutting down participation in the planet's largest pyramid scheme doesn't have a lot of downside.

Can't agree more. Also I am getting pretty sick of the impact crypto trading is having on office conversations. All I hear these days are inane conversations about getting rich quick. Everyone is an expert in technical analysis these days. At best, trading these currencies is a zero-sum game where you take money from others without providing any intrinsic worth to humanity. At worst is a pyramid scheme plain and simp…

Naysayers would point out that trading increases liquidity which ostensibly increases the ability of a market to parlay information into value.

But I'd be likely to agree with you. While blockchain technology /does/ have a future and will enable forms of socio-economic organization that were previously impossible, it's not there yet, and at the moment we're mostly passing tulips off to the greater fool.

Re: China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining

#20

Post by olalonde » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 6:03 AM UTC

ocb wrote: post #17

olalonde wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is what a pyramid scheme is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme Bitcoin is a distributed database that solves the "Two Generals Problem". Please don't spread misinformation on things you do not understand.

Could you clarify why those things are mutually exclusive? And to be clear: I don't know how to feel about Bitcoin and the attention it has received lately.

There's just nothing about the definition of a pyramid scheme that applies to Bitcoin, not even close. There's no organisation, recruiting, directors, membership or promise of payments. It doesn't have to grow forever. It's not illegal. The amount of ignorant Bitcoin comments on HN is just baffling.