Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index • Hacker News Board

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#351

Post by RobertKerans » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:56 PM UTC

jakupovic wrote: post #326

baxtr wrote: post #265

Ok, I have to admit that I am one of those people who knew about BTC very, very early but never bought any. Now, of course I should have mined at least 100 back in the days, but anyways. The reason I have never mined nor bought into it is that I still, to this day struggle to come up with a real reason to do so. Am I getting too old? Do I not see the "huge potential" what it may become? Don't I want to get freaking r…

The problem that you and others like you have is you don't have any BTC and now are struggling to understand why anyone else would have any. I think it's mostly from the fact you didn't get any when you should have and now there is no reason as it's expensive and again you don't have any. Simple really.

That doesn't really answer the question "what is the point of it" unless the only point is to create wealth for the people who do have it.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#352

Post by esotericn » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:56 PM UTC

grey-area wrote: post #305

hobofan wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Determining fully decentralized consensus between arbitrary participants (or at least one of the best approximations of that). In Bitcoin that consensus is limited to transactions, in Ethereum with smart contracts it can be used for much more (though that might require additional layers of incentivation to work properly, depending on the use case).

Nobody actually wants fully decentralised irreversible consensus between arbitrary participants on a public ledger because it is slow, costly and doesn’t solve real-word problems of identity verification, trust, reversible transactions, private transactions etc etc. People have tried and failed for years to find a compelling use for it. It’s a very interesting experiment in social engineering but I find it difficult…

Hi, I do, and that's why I use it.

You don't need to :)

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#353

Post by betterunix2 » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:56 PM UTC

hobofan wrote: post #286

baxtr wrote: post #265

Ok, I have to admit that I am one of those people who knew about BTC very, very early but never bought any. Now, of course I should have mined at least 100 back in the days, but anyways. The reason I have never mined nor bought into it is that I still, to this day struggle to come up with a real reason to do so. Am I getting too old? Do I not see the "huge potential" what it may become? Don't I want to get freaking r…

Determining fully decentralized consensus between arbitrary participants (or at least one of the best approximations of that). In Bitcoin that consensus is limited to transactions, in Ethereum with smart contracts it can be used for much more (though that might require additional layers of incentivation to work properly, depending on the use case).

"fully decentralized consensus"

Can someone define this term? Do we ignore P2P bootstrapping issues? Do we ignore the roll of IANA, RIRs, and other authorities that manage IP address and ASN assignments?

Or perhaps more to the point, why would it not work to have a consortium of banks set up and operate a distributed public ledger (thus avoiding the energy-intensive "mining" process)?

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#354

Post by minitoar » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:57 PM UTC

nickpp wrote: post #332

How much energy does watching porn consume? Playing video games? Watching a movie? Browsing Facebook? Using a ski chair? Visiting an amusement park? Going in vacation? Cooking your favorite type of food? Making ice cream? Driving to your friends? Listening to music? Concerts? Having a party? Banking? Casinos? As a species we use energy to meet our goals. Those goals may be situated anywhere in our hierarchy of needs.…

The almighty dollar rights all wrongs. If I’m paying for it, what do you care? This is a slightly dressed up Tragedy in The Commons.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#355

Post by louwrentius » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:57 PM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #265

Ok, I have to admit that I am one of those people who knew about BTC very, very early but never bought any. Now, of course I should have mined at least 100 back in the days, but anyways. The reason I have never mined nor bought into it is that I still, to this day struggle to come up with a real reason to do so. Am I getting too old? Do I not see the "huge potential" what it may become? Don't I want to get freaking r…

Well, I think they aren't any good for anything. They seem to be a solution to a problem nobody has. [0]

[0]: https://louwrentius.com/cryptocurrencies-are-detrimental-to-...

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#356

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:57 PM UTC

totalZero wrote: post #334

baxtr wrote: post #265

Ok, I have to admit that I am one of those people who knew about BTC very, very early but never bought any. Now, of course I should have mined at least 100 back in the days, but anyways. The reason I have never mined nor bought into it is that I still, to this day struggle to come up with a real reason to do so. Am I getting too old? Do I not see the "huge potential" what it may become? Don't I want to get freaking r…

If everyone were to get excited about Monopoly money as a store of value, it would be wrong to tell you that you fail to see the huge potential. The crowd decided that bitcoin is worth something, and thus it is worth something. That doesn't make you wrong for not being part of the crowd. Today Elon Musk chooses BTC and it goes up. Tomorrow the US government could crack down on BTC and it could go down. Maybe a techni…

> doesn't mean it has potential, nor that it's useful. It just means there's uptake.

This is a bit nihilistic. Bitcoin’s value has reallocated a huge amount of technical talent and resources in the global economy. It also has a growing carbon footprint. These give the public, and by extension its members, legitimate exposure to its downsides. Given that exposure, it’s valid to consider managing it.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#357

Post by mattmanser » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:57 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #295

baxtr wrote: post #265

Ok, I have to admit that I am one of those people who knew about BTC very, very early but never bought any. Now, of course I should have mined at least 100 back in the days, but anyways. The reason I have never mined nor bought into it is that I still, to this day struggle to come up with a real reason to do so. Am I getting too old? Do I not see the "huge potential" what it may become? Don't I want to get freaking r…

Do you understand what the purpose of money is? It allows you to abstract your work into a (near) universally acceptable intermediary. For instance: I am great at writing web APIs in golang, but unfortunately for me the people coming to my house today to deliver a dumpster (we're doing some spring cleaning) do not accept "golang apis" as a method of payment. So I find somebody wants "golang APIs", agree to exchange w…

No, because Bitcoin is not money, and if the only way you can talk about it is by referring to a different concept it's clear that you don't understand Bitcoin either.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#358

Post by meowface » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:57 PM UTC

Rallerbabs wrote: post #292

baxtr wrote: post #265

Ok, I have to admit that I am one of those people who knew about BTC very, very early but never bought any. Now, of course I should have mined at least 100 back in the days, but anyways. The reason I have never mined nor bought into it is that I still, to this day struggle to come up with a real reason to do so. Am I getting too old? Do I not see the "huge potential" what it may become? Don't I want to get freaking r…

Follow the big money. Michael Saylor from Microstrategies: $1B. Elon Musk from Tesla: $1.5B. GrayScale: not sure how many dollars, but they own >550,000 bitcoins. Big money is of the opinion that bitcoin is an excellent store of value. Only a matter of time before it becomes a medium of exchange. And later on, a unit of account. By that time, you won't be asking yourself what 1 bitcoin is worth anymore. Things will b…

I wouldn't be shocked if one bitcoin is worth $1 million in ten years, but I would honestly be shocked if it were being used as a medium of exchange. I see it as less probable than people mailing gold bars back and forth to each other.

I unironically think Dogecoin has a much higher chance than Bitcoin of being a legitimate and popular medium of exchange in the future, in part because the supply isn't capped.

I think cryptocurrency may drive a lot of commerce in the coming decades as an actual payment mechanism rather than a speculative security, but, if so, I don't think it'll be Bitcoin that wins that race. I suspect the value will still be fluctuating frequently and violently in ten years.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#359

Post by mensetmanusman » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:57 PM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #265

Ok, I have to admit that I am one of those people who knew about BTC very, very early but never bought any. Now, of course I should have mined at least 100 back in the days, but anyways. The reason I have never mined nor bought into it is that I still, to this day struggle to come up with a real reason to do so. Am I getting too old? Do I not see the "huge potential" what it may become? Don't I want to get freaking r…

If tens of thousands of folks like yourself had mined and kept the coins, it wouldn’t be nearly as valuable as it is today.

It’s a deflationary asset, meaning the less it gets used the more valuable it is.

Re: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index

#360

Post by kgwgk » Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 2:57 PM UTC

AnonsLadder wrote: post #333

It's hilarious to see the naysayers about Bitcoin say that BTC is not usable. Now it's worth almost 50 grand and all they can come up with is expensive transaction fees which in hindsight, are really not that expensive, and the energy consumption of maintaining the Bitcoin network. It sure is a lot better than using human lives, usually & most likely forced labor, to mine real Gold. Right? After all, energy is free w…

Twice a silly price is still just a silly price.