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Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

economist.com

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Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#91

Post by Jensson »

clippablematt wrote: post #61
voz_ wrote: post #4

I can't wait for this bubble to burst so I never have to hear about these tulips again.

Hundreds of years after the tulip bubble, tulips are still a big part of Dutch tourism with flower markets being a big attraction in Amsterdam. Because culture doesn’t disappear. So good look with that.

Crypto bubble bursting just means that all investors leave, not that crypto currencies disappear. So bitcoin would go back to levels it was at before the investment craze 4 years ago, so about 5 years ago? At that point you could buy stuff with it and send people money, but people didn't view it as an investment vehicle.

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#92

Post by sofixa »

Quindecillion wrote: post #88
mudlus wrote: post #79

Reading the top comments in this thread we are still hilariously early.

We're going to see the "tulips" line dragged out for years to come. How long do people think "bubbles" last?

Depends on the bubble, some have dragged on for decades ( e.g. railways in multiple countries or the Canal Mania in the UK)

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#93

Post by lui8906 »

gambiting wrote: post #83
snarfy wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true - crypto is bullshit. I've had a hard time shaking the realization that money is bullshit too.

I think there's a fundamental issue here that prevents us from reaching an understanding. ANYTHING can be used as money. The systems that we currently have in place have lots of big problems, but "we" decided to use them and that's why they are popular. We could also decide to use a cryptocurrency as money, and it would be equally valid, and it would become our "money" - that bit is fine and I'm not arguing with it.…

I hold a decent chunk of change in stable coins most of which I lend out to earn interest. Sometimes I top up a VISA card with those stables and then buy groceries.

You might reply "you're just using a proxy of USD the original currency, its not new".

That's true my reply to that would be:

Having the USD be on chain allows very efficient lending. For eg. I can use a lending aggregator that is constantly polling many lending sources and moves my money to the best source of yield regularly. How would you do this with traditional banking?

I expect over time for the volatility to smooth out as more of the expectations are realised and we figure out a widely agreed fair price for most cryptos (for many this will be zero).

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#94

Post by user-the-name »

eloff wrote: post #84
user-the-name wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're using solar, you're still wasting energy that could go into replacing coal or gas elsewhere. Fully green bitcoin mining is still hampering our efforts to tackle climate change.

That's only true if the miners didn't buy the solar panels themselves.

Those panels could still be deployed elsewhere and produce power for the grid.

Manufacturing them is not environmentally neutral either.

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#96

Post by user-the-name »

michaelscott wrote: post #62
user-the-name wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're using solar, you're still wasting energy that could go into replacing coal or gas elsewhere. Fully green bitcoin mining is still hampering our efforts to tackle climate change.

Economics are fully at work in every market, including renewables. If it's more profitable to... I'm not even sure what your alternative would be but I'll say feeding the energy back into the grid, then miners would do it. It's definitely not up to you to decide what people can and can't do with their energy, especially off-grid renewables, just because you perceive their use to be "wasteful"

> It's definitely not up to you to decide what people can and can't do with their energy

It absolutely will need to be if we are going to avoid frying the fucking planet. The free market is the enemy of humanity.

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#97

Post by lui8906 »

antihero wrote: post #44
donatj wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> doing nothing of any practical value while greatly helping out with destroying our planet Serious question, where does this line of thinking end? Gaming rigs use upwards of a thousand watts, no practical value in gaming. Watching sitcoms on a television has no practical value. Phones capable of doing things other than making calls have no practical value, but we charge them all the time. Honestly I think providing…

Gaming and TV shows use a fraction of the energy to bring joy to far more people. Even if your enjoyment comes from watching numbers go up so you can get rich quick, it's literally burning through power and advanced components to do it at a rate like nothing else ever conceived. And it achieves basically nothing. Crypto is currently useless at doing anything other than making some people rich.

Your argument is completely valid against Ethereum and Bitcoin, I hope they will be used less to reduce the energy used by crypto. However the vast majority of others use Proof of Stake and a fraction of the energy. Take Solana, currently the 5th largest by MCAP, a tx uses a similar amount of energy as two Google searches. I am pointing this out as I see often the whole crypto market lumped together but crypto networks are not all created equally. Some are 10 years old and others are 2 years with vastly different implementations.

> https://solana.com/news/solana-energy-usage-report-november-...

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#98

Post by throwaway52355 »

5e92cb50239222b wrote: post #13
voz_ wrote: post #4

I can't wait for this bubble to burst so I never have to hear about these tulips again.

If climate change is finally taken seriously at some point, I hope they get clamped down on very hard. Unlike meth labs and "terrorists", a large mining farm can be traced by power usage. (Unless you're using solar, then go ahead and mine all you want.) Crypto fanatics are doing nothing of any practical value while greatly helping out with destroying our planet. We've been having rolling blackouts recently because of…

Miners are securing the only censorship-resistant, permissionless hard money we have. The only people who don't see any practical value in this either don't understand Bitcoin or hate freedom.

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#99

Post by reginold »

The article focuses on three areas

1. stopping crypto assets from being used to launder money

2. taxation of crypto investments.

3. financial regulation: protecting consumers from fraud, reducing systemic risk and ensuring fair competition

All of these seem like fair measures. How successful they will be? Exchanges like Coinbase are a key point of regulation.

Also regarding the lobbing, "The Economist calculates that crypto firms spent around $5m lobbying the American Senate in the first nine months of 2021".

For those more experienced in lobbying, is that a lot?

Re: Crypto lobbying is going ballistic

#100

Post by mohanmcgeek »

Quindecillion wrote: post #88
mudlus wrote: post #79

Reading the top comments in this thread we are still hilariously early.

We're going to see the "tulips" line dragged out for years to come. How long do people think "bubbles" last?

The answer to that of always: Until there aren't any more "greater fools"
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