Don’t destroy Bitcoin. Invent a more efficient alternative for people to switch to.
Deliberately making bitcoin worse would incentivize users to switch to alternatives like Libra or Ethereum (which claims to be moving to proof-of-stake).
Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin
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Re: Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin
#32The energy in mining is not being wasted, it's being converted into something of perceived value.
The real waste of energy, one could argue is pornography, which hogs around 30% of the internet, with little value output.
Imagine replacing those servers for something more productive for humanity as a whole.
Re: Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin
#33I see Bitcoin like a 21st century Apollo project. While I agree the resources appear wasted, they are supporting a revolutionary concept that holds tremendous potential to change the way the world works. Also, consider the scale of resources used by the existing financial system, with its thousands of buildings staffed by millions of people who use energy to come into work every day to keep the whole centralized system running.
I see this call to destroy it as akin to the 1969 Apollo mission protests, when civil rights leaders argued that the space mission resources would be better used on Earth.
https://www.history.com/news/apollo-11-moon-landing-launch-p...
Re: Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin
#34As a Bitcoin proponent who is also concerned about it's long term sustainability, this post is an embarrassing read. The author clearly has a very poor understanding of what value Bitcoin currently has in our current macro-economic situation, and why investors (and corporations) are choosing to allocate larger parts of their portfolios in cryptocurrencies. Calling out the BTC network on its energetic inefficiency com…
The scarcity has nothing to do with the complexity in proof of work. The complexity made it costly to attack it. The scarcity comes with the idea of the number of bitcoins will be available is a hard limit.
Re: Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin
#35Idea: Change BTC protocol to include a new field in coinbase transactions documenting the CO2 emissions of each block. Introduce an uncle block reward like ETH. Miners agree to audits of their reports. Make block reward dependent on carbon emissions. Use rest for offset programs.
Re: Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin
#36The author misses the point. The root of the problem is that electricity is not carbon free. What the electricity is used for is irrelevant. What the author suggests would be similar to saying, "let's stop climate change by minimizing our driving instead of transitioning to electric transport."
I think the point was that POW specifically is an inefficient method of verification. They weren't arguing against the notion of using energy to run a virtual currency, just that Bitcoin specifically is needlessly wasteful, so we should move to alternative cryptocurrencies. So actually I think they are arguing for 'switching to electric transport', to use your example.
Re: Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin
#37As a Bitcoin proponent who is also concerned about it's long term sustainability, this post is an embarrassing read. The author clearly has a very poor understanding of what value Bitcoin currently has in our current macro-economic situation, and why investors (and corporations) are choosing to allocate larger parts of their portfolios in cryptocurrencies. Calling out the BTC network on its energetic inefficiency com…
> the work put into the network is exactly the scarce asset that is being invested in. No! No it isn't! Gah! I'm sorry but it is so frustrating to hear this nonsense repeated over and over. Bitcoin is not valuable just because you wasted shedloads of energy to make a bitcoin! It's valuable because somebody else will exchange something of value for it. It's incredibly maddening how so many crypto-libertarians suddenly…
Your reasoning is purely tautological and contains no actual explanation. Wondering why cannot see that yourself.
Re: Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin
#38Don’t destroy Bitcoin. Invent a more efficient alternative for people to switch to.
Deliberately making bitcoin worse would incentivize users to switch to alternatives like Libra or Ethereum (which claims to be moving to proof-of-stake).
Making Bitcoin deliberately worse would also hinder the development of those future improvements in efficiency, perhaps actually leading to proof-of-work systems being around for even longer.
Re: Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin
#39I see Bitcoin like a 21st century Apollo project. While I agree the resources appear wasted, they are supporting a revolutionary concept that holds tremendous potential to change the way the world works. Also, consider the scale of resources used by the existing financial system, with its thousands of buildings staffed by millions of people who use energy to come into work every day to keep the whole centralized syst…
If we're going to follow this analogy, what are the beneficial side effects from bitcoin?
Better ASICs that do nothing but calculate sha256 hashes? Easier money-laundering? New venues for tax evasion?
I guess censorship-resistant online value transfer is worth something, but I'm not sure it outweighs all the negatives.
Re: Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin
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