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Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

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Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Go figure out ways to remove custodial risk, so that we may not need as onerous financial regulations that stifle innovation. Demonstrating the value of, and rationale for, those "onerous financial regulations" has been the one actual good result of this blockchain nonsense. The endless tsunami of scams and fraud that has been the blockchain space has been useful in wiping away the original idiot libertarian impulse…

Libertarian idiot here: no, it hasn't.

But, but ... "the children", "the poor". Someone has to protect us from all these blockchains, stealing our money!

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#82
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but... the crypto algorithm chosen for Bitcoin is about as energy intensive as they come. Other algorithms which are more equipment intensive - scrypt etc - provide the same benefits but without the same disgusting externality of power consumption. I wish I grasped proof of stake better. I’m not yet convinced it can be made to work as well as PoW.

Right, and that's why Bitcoin has lost a huge amount of marketshare in the crypto space over the past couple months[1]. 1. https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/#dominance-percentage

I wouldn't suggest this as an explanation at all. Another, equally-plausible explanation, is that retail investors are looking for the next BTC before its price pops.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So did the blockchain Edit: not trying to defend bitcoin here, just pointing that the blockchain brought a new solution to a trust issue

No, it didn't. Blockchain technology is perhaps the biggest recent example of a solution in search of a problem. It's interesting but still not clear at all what it would be useful for over what already exists: >"Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain" https://hackernoon.com/ten-years-in-nobody-has-come-up-with-...

The blockchain has solved one real-world problem—making ransomware practical.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#85

While turning down the job is just fine, here's what happened instead: - Someone else with similar capabilities as OP's probably took the job. - This person will make significantly more money than what OP will be making (as OP points out) - This person will have learned way more about the implication of the technology, whether it actually is as bad as what mainstream media says or if those are all coming from ignoran…

> If you really want to talk shit about Bitcoin I don't. And I don't think many people do (perhaps those buying put options might). That said, it's not hard to see the cost in power usage, and thus waste heat, that is/will be spent computing hashes that match ever-growing computational requirements. You're right that I could spend a month of my time learning more about this tech that does obviously have solid implica…

[deleted]

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#86

While turning down the job is just fine, here's what happened instead: - Someone else with similar capabilities as OP's probably took the job. - This person will make significantly more money than what OP will be making (as OP points out) - This person will have learned way more about the implication of the technology, whether it actually is as bad as what mainstream media says or if those are all coming from ignoran…

> If you really want to talk shit about Bitcoin I don't. And I don't think many people do (perhaps those buying put options might). That said, it's not hard to see the cost in power usage, and thus waste heat, that is/will be spent computing hashes that match ever-growing computational requirements. You're right that I could spend a month of my time learning more about this tech that does obviously have solid implica…

Have you factored in the energy costs of running the thousands of financial institutions and associated infrastructure required to maintain them? I personally don't have time to run an energy audit of the entire financial industry, but I can tell you theres a lot more infrastructure required. factor in the engery required to: - construct giant buildings for financial offices - maintain financial offices - commute to and from offices - construct, deploy, and maintain ATMs - construct and maintain physical bank locations - server infrastructure how much of the energy required to build and maintain all of this infrastructure is from a renewable source? Proof of Work miners are at least incentivized to find the cheapest possible source of energy. Renewables! Almost free, unlimited energy!

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#87
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The investment in energy-intensive GPUs will also serve as a disincentive for any change to Bitcoin that does not require energy-intensive GPUs, which will lock us into this paradigm until something drastic happens. EDIT: I stand corrected as to the terminology, but if you replace [GPUs] with [POW hardware], the disincentive will remain.

No one has seriously mined Bitcoin using GPUs since like 2013. By 2014, everyone was using FPGAs or ASICs. Now, only ASICs are used.

I thought there was a change to the protocol that prevented ASICs from being as effective?

Perhaps I misunderstood in the context of Bitcoin, but in the context of the investment in GPUs providing support to pricing, I think that is validated just from the news a few days ago that GPU pricing because of crypto demand was causing pricing issues in PC-gaming. And the same principle should apply to whatever "effort-based" mining technology is in use; any significant investment in hardware will be a disincentive to allowing improvements in the efficiency of said hardware.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#88

What I'm curious about is how someone without any blockchain experience gets offered a blockchain job out of the blue.

1. Integrate donations using a blockchain-based payments API

2. Mention on your CV that you've integrated with blockchain-based payments APIs.

3. Recruiter searches for CVs with the word 'blockchain' and finds yours.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#89

While turning down the job is just fine, here's what happened instead: - Someone else with similar capabilities as OP's probably took the job. - This person will make significantly more money than what OP will be making (as OP points out) - This person will have learned way more about the implication of the technology, whether it actually is as bad as what mainstream media says or if those are all coming from ignoran…

Bitcoin mining uses as much energy as the nation of Denmark. Each transaction confirmation uses as much energy as nine American households do in an entire day. What “deep knowledge” am I lacking here?

Other newer cryptocurrencies don't have the same power requirements.

Your comment sounds repeated from somewhere else. Do your own research, everyone is trying to manipulate everyone else in this space.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#90
post #24

The danger in a space like this is throwing the baby out with the bath water. - Yes, there are an insane amount of scams, and lots of dumb money flowing in - Yes, many use cases of blockchains should really be databases - Yes, many blockchain job posts are just PR initiatives for companies who want to differentiate themselves That said, it's an early time to have a tremendous amount of impact. Don't like "proof of wo…

>Get angry at banks? I've found in many fields that are as complex as finance, that when I think something in that field is stupid, unnecessary, or onerous, it is I that am wrong because I simply didn't understand the why of how that thing came about. So I find it fascinating how many people/groups in history have gotten mad at banks/finance, tried to make a "better" product, gotten stung or robbed others, only to ev…

I've found this to be the case in most things, even not as complex as financial services, if you look close enough. Sometimes what you're seeing is a local maxima, where there's a rough period required to get to a better state that nobody is ready to take quite yet, and other times it's just that complexity is much more common that we like to think.

The obvious example is dumb laws. Almost every dumb law has at least some good effect it imparts, which is why it was put in place. Unfortunately the problems it causes are what is usually trotted out to explain why it's dumb and should be changed or removed, giving little or no credit to the problems it actually prevents (or disincentivizes at least).

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