Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet • Hacker News Board

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

#271

Post by UncleMeat » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

vntok wrote: post #228

gcheong wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"You get a choice between bitcoin mining and military force"

That was literally a quote from the post being responded to.

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

#272

Post by mekoka » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

“Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind, and so it’s not a great climate thing”

That's the sole actual quote attributed to Bill Gates in that article (which doesn't even link to any source). The rest is the author conflating their thoughts with Bill Gates's.

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

#273

Post by cblconfederate » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

Bitcoin maintains international order with electricity. Countries maintain it with enormous armies. Debateable which one is worse for the planet

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

#274

Post by 8fGTBjZxBcHq » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

Shorel wrote: post #232

minikites wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polluting and overheating the planet to make numbers in a computer go up.

We have been polluting and overheating the planet to make virtual characters eat pills and rescue princesses for over 30 years. What's the utility of that?

Fun and joy in and of themselves are worthy pursuits. That's completely aside from considering video games as an artistic medium that can be used to learn and share about the human experience.

Bitcoin does none of that. At its very very best it's a way to buy hallucinogens on the internet with massive external consequences.

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

#275

Post by junippor » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 5:15 PM UTC

nelsontodd wrote: post #223

junippor wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No, just because he's a billionaire doesn't mean any of those things.

It's just that Bill Gates is legendary for the amounts he reads and his recall ability, and his contributions to many topics outside of just managing MS (state of the art algorithms, erradictinc malaria, nuclear energy etc). I thought everyone knew this, but apparently not. So you can see how funny it is when a random guy on HN says "just because he's a billionaire" :D

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

#276

Post by rfd4sgmk8u » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 5:15 PM UTC

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.

This. You dear reader, you ignored BTC when it was first raised on HN in 2009. "Silly internet people, you cant make money without governments!".

* Then it hit $10. "That's not worth my time".

* Then it hit $100. "Just games for internet people."

* Then it hit $1000. "Silly worthless digital tulips."

* Then it hit $10000. "Its obviously a bubble".

* Then it hit $50000. 'Its using too much energy! This is unethical".

It will hit 100k, 500k, 1M. You will run out of excuses eventually.

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

#277

Post by cheaprentalyeti » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

Billionaire Bourgeoisieshevik who made his billions making other people have to use bad software because it was "the standard" suddenly wants to tell us about how something else being bad for society and the planet etc.

What's really bad for the planet is the rest of us have to put up with his bull.

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

#278

Post by forgetfulness » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

mattwilsonn888 wrote: post #245

forgetfulness wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Arguing from the conclusion, are we?

I mean I'm going by precedent, there's popular HN threads every so often decrying the externalities or lack of utility of Bitcoin, the comments supporting the articles rise to the top but there's a handful of people saying that Bitcoin is still worth it somehow.

Now there's a lot of people attacking Bill Gates for lending his image to the arguments. It could be that there's a majority of Bitcoin believers here but they don't usually care for arguments and just do "he he miner goes brrr" until a celebrity billionaire appears.

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

#279

Post by tw04 » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

whoisninja wrote: post #164

tw04 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I don't follow the "Look now". Every large piece of software has security vulnerabilities. If MS were refusing to patch their software I guess you'd have a point - the fact they released a patch and people who didn't apply it are getting exploited isn't really relevant to whether or not bitcoin is bad for the planet. >their OS filled with malicious stuff and who knows what kind of backdoors is when exploited…

https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-microsoft.html

I'm sorry, they lose all credibility when they call forced updates "malware".

We spent the entirety of the late-90s/early 2000s complaining that MS didn't force updates on users, so these massive worms were infecting half the internet with exploits that were patched YEARS earlier.

It took moving a mountain to get MS to enforce patching of consumer systems, to sit here now and claim that's malware is both irresponsible and ridiculously short-sighted. Without mandatory patching, I can say without exaggeration that the entire internet would be less safe. Anyone spewing that nonsense is either too young to remember how horrible things were, or too stubborn to acknowledge it was the right thing to do whether they personally agree with it or not.

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

#280

Post by xkjkls » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

airza wrote: post #254

adolph wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the cause of many of humanity's biggest problems is humans As opposed to elephants or sea urchins? How can humans not be the cause humanity's biggest problems? The Buddha taught there are three kinds of dukkha [usually translated as “suffering”]. The first kind is physical and mental pain from the inevitable stresses of life like old age, sickness, and death. The second is the distress we feel as a result of imperm…

As opposed to other externally-caused problems like natural disasters, beating eaten by lions, etc. I would guess that a large chunk of human history was dominated by these problems.

Or just hunger in general. Before the agriculture revolution starvation was the primary cause of human death.