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Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

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Re: Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

#51

Post by esimov »

gorgoiler wrote: post #38

I don’t understand Bitcoin. If I make bread and you grow potatoes, we can barter, but it’s much easier to use some intermediary to track the value that we exchanged. The intermediary facilitates this with tokens (coins, notes, cards.) Bitcoin seems perverse. It puts all the value in the tokens themselves and at the same time I can’t even use it to buy bread or potatoes. About the only thing I hear that you can buy wi…

You pointed right in the middle, but try to rationalize with someone who is a crypto advocate? I bet that it will be a completely usefulness conversation. The crypto money rely purely on USD exchange and that's why suddenly appeared so many crypto startups, because their "value" is speculative.

Re: Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

#52

Post by randomguy3344 »

garbagetime wrote: post #27
pawelmurias wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flesh of slaughtered animals is super tasty and nutritious.

That seems like a somewhat random point to make. Sure, there are positive characteristics of meat - just like there are of bitcoin. That's part of why the comparison between the two works.

In terms of conversation you got a point yourself, however you cannot compare food with currency. Food is connected to us on a biological level, currency is a construct of society.

They are not compareable imo.

Re: Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

#53

Post by crygin »

crumbshot wrote: post #9
isoprophlex wrote: post #5

I wonder how these Bitcoin devs rationalize the environmental impact their ongoing work has. They've created something that started as a revolutionary innovation, but by now is an incredibly wasteful way of turning kWhs into money. Something that has outlived its fitness as a payment system, but still trundles on due to its own inertia. Like oil execs that refuse to acknowledge that the age of oil is coming to a clos…

Probably the same way most people rationalize consuming the flesh of slaughtered animals, despite the massive negative environmental impact that has, and the better alternatives that are available.

This is a simple untruth. Vegetarianism is possible in specific ecological conditions (e.g. the Ganges Delta) and in those conditions it wins, economically, because as you note it is notionally ideal. In a non-tropic or desert environment, vegetarianism is a wasteful use of resources that typically involves transport of goods from remote locations in the service of performative consumption.

Re: Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

#54

Post by gorgoiler »

heckerhut wrote: post #43
gorgoiler wrote: post #38

I don’t understand Bitcoin. If I make bread and you grow potatoes, we can barter, but it’s much easier to use some intermediary to track the value that we exchanged. The intermediary facilitates this with tokens (coins, notes, cards.) Bitcoin seems perverse. It puts all the value in the tokens themselves and at the same time I can’t even use it to buy bread or potatoes. About the only thing I hear that you can buy wi…

Read Debt by Graeber so you can stop believing in the myth of barter. Then think again.

Thank you for the reference, and I look forward to understanding what you mean by myth.

Barter is literally my life. I teach other people’s children about life and Computer Science in order to buy potatoes. The children’s parents make medicine and build houses to pay for their children’s education. Is your point that barter is about goods, whereas most people provide services (time, labour?)

Or perhaps you mean that the majority of the economy in terms of wealth is engaged in the investment of capital, and we potato eaters are but a percentage of a percentage?

Re: Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

#55

Post by gjs278 »

esimov wrote: post #37

I cannot recommend enough for everyone who has a minimal sensibility towards the climate impact to read this thread: https://twitter.com/smdiehl/status/1350869944888664064 . Since we are inevitable heading over to a climate catastrophe it's really the time to advocate against bitcoin.

nobody cares. I hope bitcoin really does end the earth so I don’t have to live with people like you. but unfortunately, it will not.

Re: Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

#56

Post by esimov »

esimov wrote: post #37

I cannot recommend enough for everyone who has a minimal sensibility towards the climate impact to read this thread: https://twitter.com/smdiehl/status/1350869944888664064 . Since we are inevitable heading over to a climate catastrophe it's really the time to advocate against bitcoin.

No strictly related to Bitcoin, but to the cryptoworld in general: https://memoakten.medium.com/the-unreasonable-ecological-cos...

Re: Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

#57

Post by gjs278 »

emteycz wrote: post #50
esimov wrote: post #37

I cannot recommend enough for everyone who has a minimal sensibility towards the climate impact to read this thread: https://twitter.com/smdiehl/status/1350869944888664064 . Since we are inevitable heading over to a climate catastrophe it's really the time to advocate against bitcoin.

This thread does not answer the predominant usage of waste electricity by Bitcoin miners. Can't take it seriously without any mention of that. Bitcoin is mined where it makes profit, and you can't make any profit without using waste electricity. Today's mining hardware is smart enough to turn off when the powerplant signals there is too much demand and no waste (thus increased prices), and turn back on when convenien…

you just wasted electricity posting

Re: Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

#58

Post by skohan »

wcoenen wrote: post #46
tempsy wrote: post #2

bitcoin appears to have just become another asset that rich people on wall street are hoarding with no real attention or interest in the actual payment mechanism at all. it might as well just be some trading cards being shuffled around.

The dream of using bitcoin as p2p digital cash does seem to be dead for now, the fees are too high for that[1]. Lightning hasn't really taken off for that use case either, the number of bitcoins in Lightning channels appears to have stopped growing.[2] But it looks like bitcoin can still be very useful as an alternative settlement layer for international payments. Either directly for large payments, or under the hood…

As someone who lives my life in two currencies, my main hope for Bitcoin circa 2014 was that it would make for simpler and cheaper international transactions and currency conversions. I don't know if the situation has gotten any better, but around 2015/2016 this seemed untenable due to high transaction costs, and volatility.

I'm not sure I understand what would be the value of using cryptocurrency under the hood for something like Strike. If they are settling the payments themselves, why not just use a simple database to reconcile their transactions?

Re: Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

#59

Post by ur-whale »

gorgoiler wrote: post #38

I don’t understand Bitcoin. If I make bread and you grow potatoes, we can barter, but it’s much easier to use some intermediary to track the value that we exchanged. The intermediary facilitates this with tokens (coins, notes, cards.) Bitcoin seems perverse. It puts all the value in the tokens themselves and at the same time I can’t even use it to buy bread or potatoes. About the only thing I hear that you can buy wi…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHjYt6Jm5j8

Re: Bitcoin Core Lead Maintainer Steps Back, Encourages Decentralization

#60

Post by cloudhead »

esimov wrote: post #37

I cannot recommend enough for everyone who has a minimal sensibility towards the climate impact to read this thread: https://twitter.com/smdiehl/status/1350869944888664064 . Since we are inevitable heading over to a climate catastrophe it's really the time to advocate against bitcoin.

This guy has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about unfortunately. There is no evidence of any environmental impact.
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