The great filter that destroys civilizations is not a nuclear weapon technology as we thought, but crypto-mania consuming all available resources.
Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
141–150 of 361 posts
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#142Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#143There'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…
> 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. If you're worried about currency falling under the control of an unaccountable group of oligarchs who can't easily be removed, I have some bad news for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Board_of_Gover... The mo…
> If you're worried about currency falling under the control of an unaccountable group of oligarchs who can't easily be removed, I have some bad news for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Board_of_Gover...
These are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, both of which are elected by people democratically. In addition if any of them were particularly egregious, a motivated populace could amend the constitution via no representatives and kick them out anyway.
So...
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#144There'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…
> 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. That's an interesting way of describing open source software, whose existence depends on nodes willingly adopting and agreeing to a set of protocols. I'm guessing its far easier to fork a chain and convince people to join a new…
It's not about the software, it's about the currency and the people who own it.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
How effective were the traditional means of removing oligarchs? The US just elected a game show host president 4 years ago.
They managed to remove him democratically despite a rebel faction storming the capitol. Slightly less dramatic than Yeltsin on a tank, though.
It's really weird how these far right "terrorists" all stormed the capitol to "overturn the election" and "hang mike pence" but, somehow, completely forgot to bring the guns that they are so well known for having. Pretty funny way to go about an "insurrection", don't you think?
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
My first thought is you can share your thoughts with the armed people at your door if you decide to push your voluntary taxation idea. They'll probably listen to you as they're giving you a free ride to your new home. Point is, it's not a balancing weight when the state has the actual power. Broader point: instead of focusing on changing and improving the actual social/political system, people build fantasy escape so…
It is a balancing weight because the states military power depends on a landed citizenry that is easily taxed. If you remove the easily taxed part you also remove the military power part. Not advocating a lawless return to strong man tribalism. But I don't follow the idea that changing the abilities of a government to easily enforce taxation means they will remain effective at enforcing through more expensive means.
Cryptocurrencies do not exactly make it harder to enforce taxes on a landed citizenry. The government is what enforces land property in the first place, and if you're late on your taxes they'll just put a tax lien on your land and ultimately stop enforcing your property rights on it.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bitcoin is just a convenient scapegoat for people to hate on and feel like they have the moral high ground, all while they eat a high meat diet, drive single occupant cars daily, take regular domestic flights and occasional international flights, and live in McMansions with AC 6 months out of the year. Our entire lifestyles in the developed world are horrifically carbon heavy. Beating up on things like bitcoin withou…
So what if other industries are also polluting? That's not a great excuse. Tax it all imo. Once you have a mechanism to quantify and tax carbon usage it wouldn't be hard to expand it to other industries. In the mean time airline tickets will be costly and within a couple of years you will see freight operators laying down electrified double track along their right of ways in order to capture demand for regional passe…
> Tax it all imo.
That's exactly what I'm saying. Getting tunnel vision on cryptocurrency is totally missing the point. Even if all cryptocurrnecies disappeared tomorrow, nothing would fundamentally change and our civilization would still be hopelessly unsustainable.
The solution to carbon pollution has to apply to all forms of our consumption, or it won't actually matter in the long run.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why don't the provisions in the bill of rights lead to an amorphous group of oligarch gangsters and cartels who can escape prosecution because they are protected against searches/seizures/etc? Are those provisions a regression to democracy too? Why does democracy need checks and balances at all if the government is fundamentally accountable? > our current system isn't here by accident. Is cryptocurrency here "by acci…
Bitcoin at least was a deliberate response to what I would paraphrase as the "socialism for the rich, capitalism for the rest" policies of the last global financial crisis. I'm not going to say it will be successful in that aim, but the idea that governments can simply create currency by fiat, donate it to their powerful, insolvent friends, pass the cost along to your grandchildren and/or degrade the value of your sa…
Instead, you wish to create your own currency, own it with your friends, and try to degrade the purchasing power of others.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
The benefits are that the government isn’t in control of the monetary supply. Period. If that doesn’t seem like a benefit, then of course cryptocurrency seems useless.
Why is that a benefit?
Because some people convinced themselves that government is bad, even though democratic governments were the GOAL of almost every nation in the pre-independence days. If people cannot trust the institutions that they themselves built, it says more about the morals of those voting than about those so-called corrupt governments.
Re: Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why don't the provisions in the bill of rights lead to an amorphous group of oligarch gangsters and cartels who can escape prosecution because they are protected against searches/seizures/etc? Are those provisions a regression to democracy too? Why does democracy need checks and balances at all if the government is fundamentally accountable? > our current system isn't here by accident. Is cryptocurrency here "by acci…
Bitcoin at least was a deliberate response to what I would paraphrase as the "socialism for the rich, capitalism for the rest" policies of the last global financial crisis. I'm not going to say it will be successful in that aim, but the idea that governments can simply create currency by fiat, donate it to their powerful, insolvent friends, pass the cost along to your grandchildren and/or degrade the value of your sa…
> Bitcoin at least was a deliberate response to what I would paraphrase as the "socialism for the rich, capitalism for the rest" policies of the last global financial crisis.
Was it actually, though?