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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

#221

Post by mattwilsonn888 »

rhacker wrote: post #133
nelsontodd wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With bitcoin, you are paying for security. I know if I send you a bitcoin transaction there is a high probability it won't be reverted in our lifetime, possibly ever. I'm not a maxi but these new projects don't have that guarantee yet; likely they never will.

How many times has this been used in practice? Like really - did your friend owe you $200 and you wanted to make sure he couldn't pay you something over square and then call his credit company and say his card was lost? Like are you a shop online and you wanted to make sure ALL of your customers are paying in Bitcoin so they can't claim someone stole their card? Are you a party to a lawsuit and the judge decided to o…

Security is not usually the main use case of a service, but a necessary feature of one. Bitcoin can do many things, and its main use case right now is store of wealth, so with your examples you've demonstrated you don't understand its most basic function.

When you notice that multi billion dollar transactions of Bitcoin are made every blue moon you might not be scoffing at what its security protocol is providing it.

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

#222

Post by Shorel »

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.

Proof of Work vs Proof of Violence.

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

#223

Post by nelsontodd »

junippor wrote: post #132
nelsontodd wrote: post #26

Why is 'rich billionaire has uninformed or possibly self interested opinions' newsworthy

Calling Bill Gates uninformed about anything is breathtakingly uninformed.

Just because he's a billionaire doesn't mean he has the time or interest to deep dive into all emerging technologies, or possible tech bubbles

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

#224

Post by throwaway20875 »

the_local_host wrote: post #159
shiado wrote: post #62

The irony is that the exact society destabilizing grand visions of the future billionaires advocate for are some of the main drivers behind people embracing Bitcoin. If you push a "you own nothing" WEF approved dystopian tech oligarch reality don't be surprised when people adopt an asset that cannot be confiscated by the government.

> An asset that cannot be confiscated by the government It might be intractable to confiscate bitcoin by attacking the math, but why wouldn't governments just put people in jail until they pay up? With adequate control over the internet, governments would be fairly able to track who's transacting. Moreover for the vast majority of people on earth would still have basically zero money relative to the emerging bitcoin…

>Moreover for the vast majority of people on earth would still have basically zero money relative to the emerging bitcoin oligarchs. It would be a grossly unequal society, where there would need to be some non-math-based approach to getting money from the wealthy to redistribute to the less fortunate.

Those oligarchs won't be able to print more bitcoin or exclude (sanctions) their political enemies from conducting trade. Seems fairer than the current system.

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

#225

Post by justapassenger »

mlcrypto wrote: post #205

If you're reading this 10 years from now look how clueless everyone in this thread is. Everyone here still thinks BTC is not even the best crypto let alone the best asset in the world. If 50k isn't enough to convince them, nothing will. Hope you're enjoying $1M+ BTC prices in 2031.

I’m still waiting for my tulips investment to pay off.

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

#226

Post by rawtxapp »

forgetfulness wrote: post #191
rawtxapp wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is anything but HN's favorite toy.

Majority opinions seem to lean towards Bitcoin being a net detriment to society but HN will attract a really loud minority of Bitcoin diehards, for tech or profit. Or so I thought, the amount of people taking offense at Bill Gates saying the uncontroversial is impressive.

Maybe there's some overlap between HN anti-crypto crowd and those who remember Bill Gates track record at MSFT (ex: IE antitrust, anti-Linux).

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

#227

Post by wcoenen »

Ceezy wrote: post #85
mumblemumble wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The recent activation of the beacon chain (and ether staking on it) means that they're committed to proof of stake now. All currently staked ether would be stranded otherwise.

https://ethereum.org/en/eth2/docking/

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

#228

Post by vntok »

gcheong wrote: post #73
nelsontodd wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

False choice. Bitcoin mining isn’t going to replace military force as they address different problems.

No one here is arguing for replacement of military force, your brain got stuck by a common fallacy it seems.

Notice how displacing some military force usage by changing the motivation or capability for intervention (for example to maintain a currency advantage) might be in itself a Good Thing (tm) and how it does not require replacing armed forces entirely.

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

#229

Post by nelsontodd »

nindalf wrote: post #116
rustybelt wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

How so? Seems correct to me. Just this morning I had the choice of paying for groceries either with Bitcoin or by launching a violent invasion of the store.

You forget about the violent invasions that allowed the USD to maintain its value while you were paying for groceries lol
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