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Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet

technologyelevation.com

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

#81

Post by rustybelt »

nelsontodd wrote: post #54
kitcar wrote: post #11

Bitcoin is an almost perfect exploitation of humanities fatal flaws (greed, unwillingness to acknowledge externalities - i.e. selfishness). It's that old SF-trope that the cause of many of humanity's biggest problems is humans.

This is silly. Consensus (probably, I am doubtful of PoS) isn't free. You get a choice between bitcoin mining and military force. Which do you find less harmful? Edit: I should clarify. I am saying that the status of the USD as a reserve currency has led to lots of US military action.

Wow. What? This may be the worst false dichotomy I've ever seen.

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

#82

Post by rawtxapp »

adflux wrote: 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.

Central banks will never truly produce a blockchain based crypto, they won't be able to control it and they will also never make it gold backed, they can't control it.

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

#83

Post by zests »

In the past few hundred years, technological progress has been anti-correlated with environmental health. We live in an age with the most prosperity and luxury but also the most pollution. Bitcoin is no different.

As bitcoin has descended into a new culture war, I'll mention that I believe decentralized payment systems are a huge step in the right direction, but I'll also mention that I do not think this comment should be used as part of the bitcoin crusades. Take it on my word that my opinion is nuanced and that I don't own any cryptocurrencies.

This article is a culture war article itself that does not say anything appreciably new. My opinion is that once everyone knows what side of the culture war they are on, discussion about the topic becomes meaningless.

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

#84

Post by TeMPOraL »

nelsontodd wrote: post #54
kitcar wrote: post #11

Bitcoin is an almost perfect exploitation of humanities fatal flaws (greed, unwillingness to acknowledge externalities - i.e. selfishness). It's that old SF-trope that the cause of many of humanity's biggest problems is humans.

This is silly. Consensus (probably, I am doubtful of PoS) isn't free. You get a choice between bitcoin mining and military force. Which do you find less harmful? Edit: I should clarify. I am saying that the status of the USD as a reserve currency has led to lots of US military action.

Military force and law enforcement provide solutions for consensus across great many domains, so they're marginally near-free to use for consensus in any single area of interest. You could say, they are consensus factored out and made incarnate.

Conversely, if all money suddenly become Bitcoin, military force and police would still be needed, in mostly the same amount they are today.

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

#85

Post by Ceezy »

mumblemumble wrote: post #53
burkaman wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't Ethereum have the same environmental issues?

They're moving toward PoS, which should help with that: https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms...

They are talking about POS in ethereum since years.

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

#86

Post by elliekelly »

matthewbauer wrote: post #42

Bitcoin 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…

The Cobra Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect

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

#88

Post by [deleted] »

nelsontodd wrote: post #54
kitcar wrote: post #11

Bitcoin is an almost perfect exploitation of humanities fatal flaws (greed, unwillingness to acknowledge externalities - i.e. selfishness). It's that old SF-trope that the cause of many of humanity's biggest problems is humans.

This is silly. Consensus (probably, I am doubtful of PoS) isn't free. You get a choice between bitcoin mining and military force. Which do you find less harmful? Edit: I should clarify. I am saying that the status of the USD as a reserve currency has led to lots of US military action.

[deleted]
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