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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

#321

Post by neither_color »

thysultan wrote: post #125
meddlepal wrote: post #58

What is up with the comments in this thread? Feels like tons of them are bot written. Weird attacks on Bill Gates and Microsoft all over the place.

You haven't noticed that bill has become something of a movie villain over the last year in some circles?

He's been infamous since the slashdot/digg days because Microsoft's business practices and anti-trust suit. The latest conspiracy theories about him from the past year are...."weird" to say the least but are completely separate from why he was already disliked by the linux crowd.

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

#322

Post by fjeoyk »

xkjkls wrote: post #280
airza wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would have thought the opposite would be true, hunter gatherers are generally well fed from a variety of food sources, would have lived in low densities and would have been highly mobile, so in the event one food source become scarce they could move elsewhere, or switch foods. Early agriculturalists would have been stuck in once place reliant on a single, or few, food source/s and therefore vulnerable to failed harvests for a variety of reasons, droughts, natural disasters, theft (of stores, if they are lucky enough to farm food that can be stored) etc.

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

#323

Post by noxer »

apples_oranges wrote: post #78
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.

If surveillance is increased a bit more, the government won't need to use force to get your money.. they'll just use some rootkit chip on whatever device to get your private key. I am also doubtful of PoS but perhaps there's a way to make a greener coin using some amount of trust and regulation?

See XRPL.org its nether PoW nor PoS its decentral ordering by voting named FBA (Federated Byzantine Agreement)

Many projects and tokens use it by now.

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

#325

Post by jk7tarYZAQNpTQa »

adolph wrote: post #210
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.

> 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…

> How can humans not be the cause humanity's biggest problems?

That's a pretty good indicator of a civilization's state. For an advanced one, the answer to your question would be "it's nowhere near the top worries". All human-made horrors (war, climate change, etc.) would be left far behind.

If we were as smart as we think we are, our biggest problems would be rogue asteroids, solar storms and aggressive aliens, not human geopolitical bullshit, poisoning our water, or destroying our own ecosystem.

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

#326

Post by naruvimama »

Bitcoin has all the disadvantages of gold and none of it's benefits.

Gold became a valuable barter item because of it's convenience.

Store-of-value is the worst trait of gold, the incentive of sitting on a pot of gold is better than in investing it in a productive endeavour.

Gold simply cannot fuel the rapidly growing modern economies, neither can bitcoin.

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

#327

Post by jacobr1 »

xkjkls wrote: post #280
airza wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are there good studies that show this? Like a big survey of recovered bone/dental evidence over centuries?

It certainly seems plausible to me, but I'd be fascinated to review the data and how it correlates to time and geography.

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

#328

Post by whoisninja »

Qwertious wrote: post #168
whoisninja wrote: post #74

Steve Balmer and Bill also used to call Linux a cancer but look now: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-07/hackers-b... their OS filled with malicious stuff and who knows what kind of backdoors is when exploited by hackers, they blame it on China rather than taking responsibility of putting users at risk with vulnerable OS

By this same logic, we can ignore Bill Gates saying COVID is bad. Or that literal cancer is bad, for that matter. I don't see how this logic is useful.

I never said ignore anything. Whatever matters to you, look into it - don't take other people's hot takes. You might be able to have better understanding in certain things that matter to you than Bill Gates or xyz.

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

#329

Post by earthtolazlo »

rawtxapp wrote: post #135
coldpie wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What usage? Isn't bitcoin used only for speculation, and a bit of crime on the side? I'm not aware of any usage for bitcoin that isn't purely commodity trading (with zero actual underlying value) or scams.

A significant % of Bitcoin hasn't moved in years, people seem to be using it as a store of value. Crime usage is magnitude smaller than traditional currencies (source Citi's Bitcoin on the tipping point report).

The same Citi report that confused percentages with basis points in reporting that 13% of credit card charges are fraudulent?

https://www.ft.com/content/8553aba7-8beb-4b48-9287-be6a08065...

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

#330

Post by SiempreViernes »

adolph wrote: post #210
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.

> 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…

One year into a worldwide pandemic affecting every aspect of life and you have a hard time finding examples of really bad things not caused by human? That's some committed misanthropy, I got to give you that.
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