Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which proof of stake systems currently exist and work well?
Cardano and Polkadot iirc.
Cardano is still being ran by the company/foundation behind it. It is yet to transition to actual PoS.
Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
721–730 of 862 posts
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#722Earlier quoted context omitted.
People will ALWAYS cheat others given the chance, and especially when facing very little online repercussions. I am not sure who you were replying to here. I do live in a small community, I have relied on a few others for survival, and I have been both stolen from, and price gouged due to others who would try to make skin off my back. I assume you've got less real life experience in these matters. I live on the basis…
This is called projection. You assume people cannot be trusted because you cannot.
This is neither projection, nor a deflection due to myself not being trustworthy and I find it strange that one would jump first to this. No, it's situational due to life experience lived. People can and do take advantage of systems, which is more to the point of what drew libertarians to Bitcoin. Now move along.
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#723Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know what actually bothers me the most about all crypto-currencies? None of them are actually money, like in the paper-or-gold-coin sense. They're all ledgers. The thing about money is that I can hand it to someone . Possession of the money is possession of the money and third parties don't need to get involved in every transaction. I can hand someone dollars and take a sandwich and walk away, transaction done. T…
That's any fiat currency, though. But if you think not being backed by something tangible is bad, wait until you hear about 51% attacks... https://www.investopedia.com/terms/1/51-attack.asp Kinda like you waking up to a brand-new bank account, with proof! The only thing stopping 51% on BitCoin is the cost of mounting one: were it a smaller crypto currency, it would be at risk. (I'm pretty sure I got that right, but I…
A smaller currency would be at risk but the upside would also be smaller. Generally speaking there doesn't seem to be an incentive large enough to justify the enormous costs associated with a 51% attack.
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#724Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not even an amateur cryptographer, let alone an armchair one. I'm just someone who sees the failed promises made by Bitcoin (fast, cheap transactions) against the horrendous damage it is causing the environment. There has to be a better way.
I appreciate your honesty. Fast and cheap transactions have been around since long before Bitcoin. Bitcoin's innovation was to make those possible without a trusted centralized intermediary. Therefore, decentralization and security are arguably the most important properties when evaluating cryptocurrencies. And Bitcoin is king on that front. Cryptocurrencies that promise faster, cheaper or "more energy efficient" tra…
Is Bitcoin king on security and decentralization because of anything in the protocol, or because it has the most miners?
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#725What's bad for the planet is how decades of individual work output in money can be confiscated (by printing and inflation, not taxation) by the Government under the pretense of doing good. What's bizarre is that the Government is not affected by market forces while the rest of us plebs are forced to be efficient lest we lose to competition. Note: when I say confiscation, I mean money printing and not taxes (which wil…
In other words: You disagree with what your government is doing. Instead of convincing your fellow citizens that it needs to do less, you take matters into your own hands like a wannabe dictator.
I wish I had the power you accuse me of wielding. I hope and wish that in a few decades from now, we will look back in bewilderment how we allowed nation states to have control over currencies to fund centralized operations at our expense.
BTC doesn't concentrate power, it tilts the balance in favor of a just system where value isn't plundered at a whim.
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#726Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ethereum is supposedly changing over to proof of stake, but it's been a years long process
Love that username! XD Yes, Ethereum has been working towards several long-tail projects for years. I think it's more important to distinguish that nothing good or important has come of Ethereum though, and that it is NOT money, and it is not a safe currency. The blockchain is fraught with front-ran txs, the mining is very centralized, and all projects atop ETH suffer dependency on it's success. The blockchain is gro…
> more important to distinguish that nothing good or important has come of Ethereum though
I mean, Ethereum has the second largest marketcap of all cryptocurrencies and it feels like 80% of the research & development either comes from Ethereum directly or close-by ecosystems.
To say that Ethereum is Dave & Busters tokens when compared to Bitcoin is funny, since every single cryptocurrency is magic internet money anyway.
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#727Earlier quoted context omitted.
> None of them are actually money, like in the paper-or-gold-coin sense. They're all ledgers. Many of the other comments have pointed out how money doesn't have this quality either. This comparison is a wash: buy gold if that's your goal (at least until we find/mine a gold-laden asteroid). The other comparison is who you have to trust to insure the value of that currency. In the case of cash, it is your government/Tr…
>I am originally from Zimbabwe and have much to say about trusting the government with insuring the value of cash... Have you ever thought about how to boost the economy and thus the ability to exchange zimbabwean dollars for more services and goods? Because that is what is necessary to get the zimbabwean dollar back in order. Anything whose price is going up is scare and its domestic production must be expanded.
Yes, you have to do the opposite of what the government did (printing more cash): remove money from circulation. The Zimbabwean dollar ceases to exist, regardless. They have adopted forex, usually ZAR and USD.
My main point is that fiat currency implies trust in some entity. Zimbabwean vendors have chosen to trust the South African and US governments.
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#728Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, it's arguable how much the US Government is determining the worth of dollars rather than cultural consensus. I can guarantee that in the event of a zombie apocalypse where the government falls, USD would be used for a long time after.
I don't think it would. In a zombie (or other type) apocalypse dollars have zero value. You can't eat them or use them as fuel. Gold may have value as a medium of exchange but it would quickly revert to barter system for food, fuel etc. What good is selling food for dollars if you can't spend those dollars next week? Better to swap the food for another good which can be used or exchanged.
Gold is a terrible medium of exchange. People would continue using dollars for a long time because they still exist
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#729What's bad for the planet is how decades of individual work output in money can be confiscated (by printing and inflation, not taxation) by the Government under the pretense of doing good. What's bizarre is that the Government is not affected by market forces while the rest of us plebs are forced to be efficient lest we lose to competition. Note: when I say confiscation, I mean money printing and not taxes (which wil…
This argument is really hard to understand for people whose revenue is derived from the current system. Many people here fail to understand what cryptocurrencies are about because they are entrenched in these systems and these new systems endangers their perceived stability. The reality is that the world, companies, people and nation states do not care about that. The current divide is due to the "system" being non-i…
The people whose revenue is derived from the current system are far outnumbered by those who lose in the system.
Re: Bill Gates Says that Bitcoin is bad For the Planet
#730Earlier quoted context omitted.
In other words: You disagree with what your government is doing. Instead of convincing your fellow citizens that it needs to do less, you take matters into your own hands like a wannabe dictator.
I wish I had the power you accuse me of wielding. I hope and wish that in a few decades from now, we will look back in bewilderment how we allowed nation states to have control over currencies to fund centralized operations at our expense. BTC doesn't concentrate power, it tilts the balance in favor of a just system where value isn't plundered at a whim.
You don't have it (on your own) but you try.
> BTC doesn't concentrate power, it tilts the balance in favor of a just system where value isn't plundered at a whim.
No, the value is "plundered" by a democratically elected government. You don't like it? Vote against it. Or work to fix your system of government if it's too broken for that. But don't try to make the policies you don't like impossible.
And yes, unlike BTC operates on the basis of one-person-one-vote, or somehow prevents concentration of wealth, it does not prevent concentration of power.