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The Ethereum merge is done

coindesk.com

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Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#941

Post by randomsearch »

jll29 wrote: post #125
lmarcos wrote: post #28

> The Merge is one of the largest technological events in the industry to date. I feel kinda ashamed. I work in the IT industry and I claim to have knowledge about ("good") software engineering practices, distributed systems, compilers, algorithms, etc. Nevertheless, I didn't understand a word of what the article is saying. Could you recommend serious references (preferably books and not random blogs) I could read to…

Read 'Mastering Ethereum' https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Ethereum-Building-Smart-Con... The short of it is: - The block chain is a distributed ledger database, where all peers hold a full copy to avoid manipulation (faking an entry is only possible by controlling >50% of machines in this peer-to-peer network). - Spending money is implemented by adding a transactional record to the blockchain ledger at the end sayin…

Fantastic thanks. Care to take a go at explaining at a similar level PoW vs PoS?

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#942

Post by colordrops »

pbronez wrote: post #731
colordrops wrote: post #725

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are saying two contradictory things. First that those with the most money control Ethereum, and then that transactions can't be controls be reversed, indicating that you want a human layer of control that is currently missing. This is a conflating of layers and evidence of a fundamental misunderstanding of of how it works. The fact that these types of get off my lawn comments get voted to the top of HN that make…

I think the argument is: (1) in both traditional finance and crypto, a relatively small group of big players control the rules of the game (2) in traditional finance, there are established ways for small players (Eg consumers) to appeal to big players (eg retail bank) to make exceptions and provide redress (3) in crypto, there are not yet established pathways for small players to petition big players for redress in t…

This makes a false equivalency. Petition in traditional finance is with regards to individual transactions. In crypto, petition would be how the protocol works. The equivalent in traditional finance would be the credit card EULA, rules and conditions. Small players definitely have no redress here.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#943

Post by oofbey »

joshspankit wrote: post #930
elevaet wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. My top concern with cryptocurrency is the huge waste of energy inherent to PoW. It's really, really good to see ETH pull this off. There are a pile of other problems in crypto, but it's fantastic to see this biggest (IMO) issue addressed by the #2 cryptocurrency. I actually thought it might never happen. It's a day to celebrate for sure.

Honestly, PoW seems like a big problem but the reality is that miners have been boosting the solar companies. Solar is cheaper than most other power sources and any miner will tell you that the cheaper the power the more profit they make.

Miners are turning back on shuttered fossil fuel burning power stations. Pumping carbon into the air for zero public benefit. of course they’d prefer cheaper power if they could get it - everybody does. But just because they prefer clean power in no way excuses the huge waste of carbon that powers most mining.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#945

Post by TGIF »

Widdershin wrote: post #927
brianobush wrote: post #915

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Next I want gamers to quit wasting energy too. They should just read books and do something useful with their time.

I hope you’re not reading any paper books - the environmental impact of paperbacks is phenomenal when compared to eReaders. And of course, you would never waste energy by purchasing a hardcover, that would be morally reprehensible. Honestly wouldn’t surprise me if a kid playing minecraft on an old computer had drastically less impact on the environment than your average book snob - especially the “I buy paper for the…

Paper is a renewable resource that sequesters carbon so it’s arguably less bad than electronics.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#946

Post by dleslie »

dinobones wrote: post #920
Waterluvian wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not using up a goat load of electricity is like 99% of why this change is great. Let people speculate on their funny money without harming everyone. A lateral move on the other details is rather unsurprising.

The thing is, most "crypto haters" on HN are just regretful no-coiners. Crypto is exactly the type of thing you would except HN to love, it ticks the box in so many ways, except for the one where... They forgot to buy some and are forever resentful. I honestly struggle to believe this group of people truly care that much about crypto's effects on the environment; from the people I've spoken about this with personally…

I made money on crypto, and still believe it's just a Ponzi scheme that's wretched for carbon emissions. I'm certain that I'm not alone.

The fact is that crypto doesn't really solve any pressing problems for normal people. Fiat currency and related digital networks work just fine, all of the time.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#947

Post by dleslie »

psychlops wrote: post #898
bcrosby95 wrote: post #684

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If a criminal spies on my credit card # as I make a purchase and uses that to go on a spending spree I can fix it with the credit card company with little cost but a few hours of time and frustration. I'll take this one step further. My credit card company has caught every instance of fraud on my card. So I've had zero hours of frustration yet multiple instances of people trying to use my credit card number. One ti…

So because your losses are comfortably socialized, it's a good system?

Yes? I don't see how helping my fellow citizens, and myself, at a vanishingly, immeasurably small cost to myself is a bad thing.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#948

Post by wraptile »

Jasper_ wrote: post #669
ineedasername wrote: post #444

Prior to the merge ethereum’s trust was controlled by the organizations with the most money who bought/built massive data centers to mine it. With the merge & staking that abstraction layer has disappeared and it’s still the organizations with the most money who control it. Sure it’s great that non-productive math problems no longer need to be solved & consume so much energy and hardware to make it all work. And it m…

My view is that crypto's goals (e.g. decentralized, deflationary, no transaction reversals) are non-goals, but even if those non-goals were goals, both PoW and PoS fail to effectively solve them, especially the decentralized part. PoS sucks more than PoW on this axis: PoS encourages centralization within the system (those with more ETH control the chain), and PoW encourages centralization outside the system (those wh…

I think the keyword here is _stake_.

As in with PoW I can migrate once the ecosystem is damaged (i.e. just mine something else, sell the hardware, w/e) with PoS I need that ecosystem to thrive to profit or to even exit it.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#950

Post by cma »

aeyes wrote: post #580
ChadNauseam wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPUs are ridiculously cheap now, compared to how they used to be. You can buy a 3070 from newegg for $599 and they’ll throw in a free monitor to sweeten the deal for you

The 3070 had a $499 MSRP when it launched, I wouldn't call this deal "ridiculously cheap".

That's the same price in inflation adjusted dollars (tech usually drops price faster than inflation raises it, but not recently).
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