Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
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Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
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Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#2I still think war and oil are dirtier and don't see a way to wean ourselves off that consumption and impact. I do see that cryptocurrencies are moving toward energy reduction through things like proof of stake and L2s.
https://susanfsu.medium.com/think-btc-is-a-dirty-business-co...
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#3There's some good data here - that being said, even if the carbon footprint were literally zero, I couldn't personally support cryptocurrency.
Fundamentally it's the antithesis to democracy. Say whatever you will about all forms of government, but ultimately no matter the form, there's some level of accountability. Some governments use elections to facilitate this, others use the threat of rulers being killed. One way or another, there's accountability.
The fundamental political issue with cryptocurrency is now you've created some amorphous group of oligarchs whose power cannot be really removed by traditional means. It's just a regression.
Even if what I'm saying doesn't come to be, at a minimum you've introduced yet another layer to our financial systems for no benefit - our current system isn't here by accident. It's here due to learnings - learnings about human nature, markets, and so forth. Because cryptocurrency doesn't exist in a vacuum, no matter what you're either enriching early adopters, leading to what I described earlier; or you are subject to the same flaws as fiat that it's trying to replace.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#4I still think war and oil are dirtier and don't see a way to wean ourselves off that consumption and impact. I do see that cryptocurrencies are moving toward energy reduction through things like proof of stake and L2s. https://susanfsu.medium.com/think-btc-is-a-dirty-business-co...
HERE IS THE ARTICLE YOU CAN SEND TO PEOPLE WHEN THEY SAY “BUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES WITH CRYPTOART WILL BE SOLVED SOON, RIGHT?”
https://everestpipkin.medium.com/but-the-environmental-issue...
The promise of "proof of stake eventually" is just greenwashing.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#5Good to see someone debunking the deeply flawed Cambridge Index. "Data is currently provided by four mining pools for the latest period." [0]
There are hundreds of pools and the ones they pick have a stronger China workload. Then, they extrapolate from that limited source of data.
Given that China just turned off everything and hardware moved globally (a lot to the US), it effectively invalidates everything they have been doing.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#6There's some good data here - that being said, even if the carbon footprint were literally zero, I couldn't personally support cryptocurrency. Fundamentally it's the antithesis to democracy. Say whatever you will about all forms of government, but ultimately no matter the form, there's some level of accountability. Some governments use elections to facilitate this, others use the threat of rulers being killed. One wa…
What about the idea that it acts as a balancing weight to the perverse incentives for countries to debase their currency? Radically if the relationship to taxation was more of a voluntary customer relationship it could lead to better outcomes, ignoring how many more problems it might bring. Thoughts?
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#7Another industry in need of carbon taxes. Stuff like bitcoin would be a lot more palatable if its users paid for the externalities they saddle upon everyone else from their carbon usage.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#8I still think war and oil are dirtier and don't see a way to wean ourselves off that consumption and impact. I do see that cryptocurrencies are moving toward energy reduction through things like proof of stake and L2s. https://susanfsu.medium.com/think-btc-is-a-dirty-business-co...
This article isn't claiming that PoW is the dirtiest activity. However, its impact is very significant and we need to get rid of it ASAP.
As far as i know there are no plans to move Bitcoin away from PoW, a project that would be very likely to fail due to the hopelessly quarrelling Bitcoin community.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#9There's some good data here - that being said, even if the carbon footprint were literally zero, I couldn't personally support cryptocurrency. Fundamentally it's the antithesis to democracy. Say whatever you will about all forms of government, but ultimately no matter the form, there's some level of accountability. Some governments use elections to facilitate this, others use the threat of rulers being killed. One wa…
What about the idea that it acts as a balancing weight to the perverse incentives for countries to debase their currency? Radically if the relationship to taxation was more of a voluntary customer relationship it could lead to better outcomes, ignoring how many more problems it might bring. Thoughts?
Focusing on democratic nations specifically for a moment - I don't see how it could be a balancing weight. Presumably all issues with a country and its handling of their own currency could be resolved solely through democratic political means.
No technical solution - cryptocurrency or otherwise - necessary.
I don't really understand your second point. Taxation by definition is involuntary. I won't discuss the merits of taxation (vs. detriments) but a "voluntary taxation" system would result in a prisoners dilemma where no one would pay taxes. Eventually the government that implements such a thing would be no longer able to fund itself and in quick succession find itself literally bankrupt.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#10There's some good data here - that being said, even if the carbon footprint were literally zero, I couldn't personally support cryptocurrency. Fundamentally it's the antithesis to democracy. Say whatever you will about all forms of government, but ultimately no matter the form, there's some level of accountability. Some governments use elections to facilitate this, others use the threat of rulers being killed. One wa…
What about the idea that it acts as a balancing weight to the perverse incentives for countries to debase their currency? Radically if the relationship to taxation was more of a voluntary customer relationship it could lead to better outcomes, ignoring how many more problems it might bring. Thoughts?
Voluntary tax is charity. The whole point of tax is that it applies to everyone by some set of rules that democracy has arrived at.