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Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet

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Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet

#22

There are so many better crypto-currencies. Better for the environment because they use proof-of-stake, and not proof-of-work. Better for users because transactions are confirmed in seconds, not hours, and without the ridiculous fees that Bitcoin has. I think this shows how truly powerful the network effect, and being first to market is. Because without those things, Bitcoin would be nothing.

I do think Ethereum will overtake Bitcoin eventually in usage. In some ways it already has. Ethereum's transaction fees are set to drop like a rock over the next few years, and so many useful things are built on it already.

Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet

#23

Still no valid usecase found for Bitcoin, aside from being a number-is-green-and-goes-up currency. Lightning is unused. TX fees are stupidly high. We're dedicating ASICs powered by entire coal plants to mining bitcoin. And before you, commenter to this post, say anything, no, your Eth/Doge/Xrp/Monero/Tether/scam-ipo-of-the-day is not more valuable. NFTs are worthless. No, being distributed does not make your favorite…

It enables people cut off (in one way or another) from traditional banking to actually have an account.

You want to kill bitcoin provide a real alternative else it is most definitely not "worthless" as you say?

Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet

#24

There are so many better crypto-currencies. Better for the environment because they use proof-of-stake, and not proof-of-work. Better for users because transactions are confirmed in seconds, not hours, and without the ridiculous fees that Bitcoin has. I think this shows how truly powerful the network effect, and being first to market is. Because without those things, Bitcoin would be nothing.

Which proof of stake systems currently exist and work well?

Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet

#27
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From Bill: "Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind." And he's right. Bitcoin is terrible for the planet and our future.

Electricity per transaction is an extremely poor way to communicate anything useful. It says nothing about the actual harm of Bitcoin and only leaves readers (and bloggers) drawing their own conclusions.

why is it a poor way to communicate anything useful?

if sending someone a dollar through venmo costs $0.0000001 worth of electricity and sending someone a dollar through the bitcoin network costs $1 doesn't that communicate everything you need to know?

Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet

#29
Microsoft's success has objectively been a step backwards for computing.

Anyone who has used a NeXTstation with 32Mbytes of RAM and an 68040 CPU, which did not even have accelerated video, can certainly understand how bloated and wasteful of resources all the various Windows applications and operating systems have been over the years.

How many resources does Xbox use? It's not essential either...

Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet

#30
post #8

I feel like it's a matter of time until the central banks release a coin (gold backed?) and kick Bitcoin and all other crypto's out. Keeps them in power, uses the advantages of crypto.

Digital currencies for central banks (CBDC) do not require a blockchain to exist. They are two different things, I don't think they will compete with each others.
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