Why is 'rich billionaire has uninformed or possibly self interested opinions' newsworthy
Because this rich tech billionaire brought about humanity-changing innovations so maybe what he says deserves some attention? Why does _your_ opinion matter?
Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
41–50 of 862 posts
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#42Bitcoin doesn't have to use so much energy. The difficulty level is what causes the high levels of energy consumption. If we could get all the major mining groups to dismantle some % of their machines, we could reduce energy consumption with a very small cost to the group. This could reduce energy consumption, while also preserving the value of Bitcoin. Maybe Bill Gates can start signing checks to the miners? You get 10K for every machine you video destroying.
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#43How has he not acknowledged how expensive physical settlement between banks is? A brinks truck carrying funds between banks, the bankers managing this process, all the and all of the human capital required to support the entire process?
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#44Earlier 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? If something uses more energy for the transaction than the value of the item I am buying or selling I call that ridiculous.
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Doesn't Ethereum have the same environmental issues?
Ethereum is supposedly changing over to proof of stake, but it's been a years long process
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#46Still 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…
I'm with you up until the last part.
If people want to gamble with their money and get something out of it, that is their right.
I just wish people with money had a little shame and didn't spread this fairytale of these crypto currencies being anything other than a lottery ticket. The question 'how much is enough' from the movie Wall Street often comes to mind every time I see some rich scumbag like Chamath promoting bitcoin on TV. Haven't you got enough fucking money? Apparently not and so it goes.
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Doesn't Ethereum have the same environmental issues?
Not once Proof of Stake is adopted next year (hopefully).
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#48What about 0 percent interest rates? How much environmentally damaging malinvestment across the globe has been caused by risk free money?
Think of how carbon intensive the concrete, steel, manufacturing, power generation industry are. Not to mention the population boom beyond our earths carrying capacity needed to perpetuate our ever increasing monetary scheme requiring never ending growth where deflation can never exist.
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#49There 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?
NEO, Dash, QTUM, Algorand
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Doesn't Ethereum have the same environmental issues?
Yes. Ethereum 2.0 "promises" to fix most of them though. We'll see.