71–80 of 229 posts
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.
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…
We don't use gold to buy goods either, but it has a value, because people believe it has. The value of Bitcoin is disputed because not everyone believes in it yet. So it's either a gold in the making or nothing, depending on whether those who believe in it will succeed at convincing the others of its merits.
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…
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.
From the angle that bitcoin is useless, it's easy to dismiss it as waste. The reality is that you live in world where people have different understandings and values than you may have. So advocating against Bitcoin is no different than advocating against air travel. You see no issue in the huge amounts of energy consumption for "seeing the world" and "business travel" but maybe I do.
Use resources the way you wish and so will others. Free markets will decide where scarce resources work best.
Whether you like it or not, human beings find a need to store value. In countries without a proper store of value -- due to e.g. government intervention -- they start hoarding commodities (e.g. wheat, cotton) or productive assets like cars.
So the question becomes whether having something like Bitcoin as a replacement for hoarding useful assets is actually environmentally preferable. Hoarding millions of cars as a store of value -- as they do in e.g. Argentina -- also impacts the environment, as we need to produce more cars to account for it. So if hoarding bitcoins replaces this practice, perhaps it will become a net benefit for the environment.
Of course, this point of view assumes the inevitability of hoarding. As far as I can see, it's a survival instinct, which cannot be suppressed -- we can only control which goods are hoarded. Ban money and people will start hoarding less saleable goods.
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…
It sounds like the reason is that you don’t understand money, which is generally regarded as having 3 core functions. Acting as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. Bitcoin does all of those things. Your issue seems to be that it’s not widely accepted enough as a medium of exchange to properly facilitate that function? The problem with that view is that it is widely accepted enough to drive…
A good currency is not consuming a huge chunk of the resources it is tracking. Electricity spent "mining" bitcoin is not somehow recoverable from the tokens. Which makes it worse then gold, which actually is.
I think the people who are critical of the wastefulness of Bitcoin fail to factor in the usefulness of a store of value. Whether you like it or not, human beings find a need to store value. In countries without a proper store of value -- due to e.g. government intervention -- they start hoarding commodities (e.g. wheat, cotton) or productive assets like cars. So the question becomes whether having something like Bitc…
I agree with the OP Bitcoin should run over a network protocol like PJON https://github.com/gioblu/PJON and a private network infrastructure made by people.
The point is, if you switch just the protocol, and keep the same infrastructure nothing will change.
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 is like crusading against people using their clothes dryer, driving when they don't absolutely need to, turning on A/C when they could just put on a sweater, not to mention all the industrial and commercial energy expenditures producing bullshit we don't need. From where you sit, look around your room and contemplate the incredible energy expended to get these items where they are. If your concern is about avoid…
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.
A highly wasteful one too, in terms of energy consumption. And the negative environmental impact that has. As we head towards a burgeoning climate catastrophe, no-one should be using Bitcoin.
Are there any estimates, what percentage of that is caused by mining bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies? What about things like machine learning or rendering video footage?
I'm afraid that i couldn't find anything comprehensive, but something like that would be very interesting to explore!