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Proof-of-work should be banned

stopburncoins.medium.com

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Re: Proof-of-work should be banned

#41

Post by maxerickson »

elliotpage wrote: post #8
X6S1x6Okd1st wrote: post #3

As long as we are making large unilateral changes: We should have a re-distributive carbon tax.

Good idea. We should also abolish private landlords and immediately provide housing to everyone who is unhoused.

Yes, we should modify our social support systems in the direction of just providing housing. It won't solve all the problems, but for many people, it's a cheaper, more effective form of support than the things we do now.

Re: Proof-of-work should be banned

#42

Post by throwaway13337 »

X6S1x6Okd1st wrote: post #3

As long as we are making large unilateral changes: We should have a re-distributive carbon tax.

An issue with a carbon tax as it relates to bitcoin is that it would simply force mining into more lax countries. The only way to discourage what miners are doing would be to lower the value of bitcoin.

This prisoner's dilemma comes up so much in global politics, it should have it's own name.

Re: Proof-of-work should be banned

#43

Post by quotemstr »

semitones wrote: post #29
quotemstr wrote: post #7

Nobody has any right to tell me what kind of math I can on processors I own powered by electricity that I bought.

Would you make the same argument for driving a gasoline-guzzling truck? People have the right to tell you whatever you want, but you also have the right not to listen. In this case, I don't think the onus is on you, the individual consumer, to turn down their mining operation. It's problematic when something so wasteful is done on such a massive scale, as is the case with large corporate/state mining operations that…

Yes, I would. If there's some negative externality caused by activity X, put a price on that externality and let the market decide whether X is still worth it. Top-down bans and mandates and price controls and all sorts of other clumsy interventions in society destroy value and cause endless misery to humanity. What works is letting people decide on their own how to live their lives.

https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-like-State-Certain-Condition/d...

Re: Proof-of-work should be banned

#46

Post by jariel »

derefr wrote: post #13

This is like saying incandescent light bulbs should be banned. Sure, it’s a sensible thing to say once you have unilaterally-better bulbs already fully commercialized and in mass production. (And this happened with CFLs and then LED bulbs; and then we did ban incandescents, here in Canada and in many other places.) But we’re not at that “fully commercialized and in mass production” inflection point yet with Proof-of-…

Not only is BTC not a replacement for anything - there's no real reason for it it use so much energy. It's an absurd idea. There are 1000 ways to print money and give it out. Making people spend effort wasting energy is just an arbitrary and bad way to do it.

Re: Proof-of-work should be banned

#47

Post by pydry »

jariel wrote: post #38
pydry wrote: post #12

It's unlikely that there will be any real attempt to regulate bitcoin while it enables the circumvention of capital controls and reliably brings wealth and investment into rich countries.

As soon as public coffers are 'materially circumnavigated' it will be a problem.

If that were how it worked every tax haven in the world would be slammed with Cuba/Iran style sanctions.

Re: Proof-of-work should be banned

#48

Post by eli »

mnd999 wrote: post #35

Cannabis (for example) has been banned since 1928, yet it hasn't gone away. When things make money, legislation is not an effective way to eliminate them.

Cannabis is inherently valuable. A proof-of-work blockchain is not; it's an implementation detail. A better example might be banning CFCs from aerosol spray cans.
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