31–40 of 158 posts
I guess the issue here is that calculated bitcoins don't contribute anything. The grid should be used for something useful such as folding proteins or even SETI for that matter.
The way I understand bitcoins might be flawed but would certainly appreciate clarification ... My problem with bit coins is that early people who start mining have a greater advantage than later ones. While that's not the classic definition of a Ponzi scheme (in the classic definition, payouts at each round are funded by new participants), it is a feature bitcoin shares with them. If someone started mining bitcoin wh…
Personally, I'm more concerned by the resources that are being utterly and completely wasted discussing Bitcoin on HN. Hasn't it been talked to death already? Is there really anything new to say?
It's also a new and interesting intersection of technology, economy, and personal trust.
Any system of checks and balances will have its price. Look at what we do with gold: we dig it from a hole in Africa, we transport it in other countries, we dug holes or build vaults and throw it there. Like Warren Buffett said, it has no utility, if Martians were to look at the process they would scratch their heads. Except for the guarantee of uniqueness. Which is one of the most powerful invariants against corrupt…
There are a few more actually: gold is one of the least putrescible materials out there (it's one of the least reactive elements available and as one of the royal metals very few acids can attack it), it has a distinctive look, and it has a very high density (most denser metals were only discovered in or after the 19th century, and are generally more valuable) which makes it easy to differentiate pure and impure golds (such as fake coinage). It also used to strike a good balance between rarity (which ensures the market won't be flooded) and availability (which actually made it usable as money).
Of course, most of this broke down as new, very productive, mines were found (e.g. in South America) and mining techniques improved. And nowadays we have the opposite issue: gold mining output declines, and is unable to follow the value growth of the world itself. This is one of the reasons why most countries moved first to fractional gold standards and then to convertible currency.
Personally, I'm more concerned by the resources that are being utterly and completely wasted discussing Bitcoin on HN. Hasn't it been talked to death already? Is there really anything new to say?
There's a lot to say. I personally think the Bitcoin debate is interesting because it's making a lot of people question the concept of money - especially in the current state of the world economy. It's also a new and interesting intersection of technology, economy, and personal trust.
It's not that Bitcoin isn't new and interesting-- it is-- but that there is nothing new and interesting to say about it today that wasn't said (here) yesterday.
My magazine have a two part series that argue the opposite that bitcoin mining is not wasteful: 1. http://bitcoinweekly.com/articles/the-wasted-electricity-obj... 2. http://bitcoinweekly.com/articles/the-wasted-electricity-obj...
So at a guess, the network is doing now around 7MW of electrical power, although there is room for a lot of efficiency improvement.
Excellent article. I would only add that we're using a LOT of energy to create a fake (read: virtual) resource. The best part about virtual resources is that they don't use many real resources, but this one is the opposite. Granted, it's a 1-time cost, but as the article notes, it could be created with a much lower 1-time cost.
How much manpower and energy does it take to make a paper US dollar with nothing backing it up? [EDIT] Since I'm getting downvoted, I'll answer my own question: $0.042 every 18 months.
He wound up paying 1 cent. Which went on to prove that if people cooperate anonymously, everyone wins, yet some people will always chose to not cooperate and screws the whole pot. All the class had to do was collectively write 1 and split the 1 mil evenly between each other.