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Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power

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Re: Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power

#421

Post by alchemist1e9 »

acdha wrote: post #376
alchemist1e9 wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire history of fiat currency is a combination of warfare and currency collapse. Why was the Bank of England created? To wage war. Perhaps “wasting” 2% of the world’s electricity supply will look a lot better when civilization scale money laundering and currency collapse is a thing of history, not to mention the curb on national budgets being allocated to war machines!

Are you seriously arguing that money laundering or military spending will go away if Bitcoin is more widely used? Continuing this, “fiat currency” has a specific meaning in economics: it’s a currency not backed by a commodity. Bitcoin is a fiat currency because the only value it has is based on social consensus, making it exceptionally volatile, but at the time the Bank of England was founded the pound sterling was b…

What we’re talking about here isn’t your everyday money laundering; it’s civilization-scale laundering facilitated by central banks. This isn’t some small-time operation; it’s legalized crime on a global scale. Banks pack their balance sheets with worthless securities, then cry for bailouts when the jig is up. It’s a classic con, and it’s happened worldwide numerous time, from small to large countries, and always propped up by the fiat system. Without fiat’s flexibility to, let’s say, ‘creatively manage’ economics, this kind of scheme becomes a whole lot harder, if not impossible.

Bitcoin fiat? That’s way off base. No serious analyst would lump Bitcoin in with fiat currencies. Why? Because fiat currencies are backed by government decree, used for tax payments, and can be issued ad infinitum by central authorities. Bitcoin ticks none of those boxes. It’s decentralized, with no central authority to pump out new units or demand its use for official transactions. Bitcoin is as far from fiat as you can get.

Regarding the Bank of England’s founding in 1694—let’s get our facts straight. It wasn’t about credit; it was about waging a war without the cash to back it up. This move marked a turning point, expanding the empire and cementing the British Pound as a reserve currency. This kind of dynamic isn’t ancient history; it’s alive and well, fueling today’s massive military expenditures. These are bankrolled by the fiat system’s ability to inflate currency and issue debt. And when fiat currencies collapse? It’s usually the losers of these conflicts who feel the burn. So, yeah, Bitcoin offers a real alternative to this endless cycle of warfare and financial manipulation.

Re: Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power

#422

Post by theultdev »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #414
theultdev wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey I'm the government man here to audit your power bill. Please go over everything you spend your power on and the government will tell you whether you can continue to have power/internet. Hey, why are you nervous? Oh looks like it was just a hot summer. ...oh what's this... sorry you don't have a heat pump, we will take your A/C, now spend 50k on a new heat pump one. Better get started it's going to be a hot one. e…

Those are a fraction of what it takes to be a miner? Not sure what that was about.

The point was the government stepping in, monitoring, and cutting off services is bad.

Re: Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power

#423

Post by malermeister »

ragnese wrote: post #165
malermeister wrote: post #10

Ban it already. We're in a global energy and climate crisis. Stop wasting it for make-believe computer money.

(All money is make-believe)

I agree, fwiw. Let's move on to a post-money communist society.

Re: Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power

#425

Post by malermeister »

theultdev wrote: post #422
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are a fraction of what it takes to be a miner? Not sure what that was about.

The point was the government stepping in, monitoring, and cutting off services is bad.

Wait was that the point? What you mentioned sounded like an unironically ideal state.

Re: Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power

#426

Post by malermeister »

lurking15 wrote: post #346
malermeister wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't engineer your way out of a social dilemma. If the government says "anyone caught using bitcoin goes to jail" and actually puts effort into enforcing it, all the fancy engineering in the world isn't going to help you, unless you never want to actually use it in the real world.

But if bitcoin can operate in China now where it's been repeatedly banned and the network chugs along completely uninterrupted it seems like a stretch that governments (of which the entire world would have to band together) have any say here.

"actually puts effort into enforcing it" being the key. China is corrupt as shit and the enforcers are all bribed.

Re: Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power

#427

Post by kasey_junk »

wscott wrote: post #327
webignition wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit of a tangent, but do you mind saying what you pay per kWh? I'm currently on £0.36 GBP per kWh (about $0.45). Just wondering what counts as cheap!

https://www.globalenergyinstitute.org/average-electricity-re... us average: $0.18 Wyoming: yeah, cheap. But cold so a heat pump would still totally pay for itself.

Fwiw the estimate for IL seems high to me. I spend about 7c delivered in Chicago.

Tons of nuclear supply keeps costs down around the Great Lakes. Perhaps downstate is raising the average.

Re: Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power

#428

Post by lovich »

alchemist1e9 wrote: post #372
lovich wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

replace "Bitcoin" with "God" in this comment and it sounds like a cult leader. Since the beginning of time there have always been a group of humans who would like the ability to not follow the rules set by whatever accounts for leadership in their group. Bitcoin isn't feeding some novel desire. And Bitcoin/crypto evangelists still havent grappled with the fact that if they ever actually succeed in becoming a real riv…

Ok let’s try it: > It takes both intellectual and emotional maturity to understand and accept the wisdom and power of free markets. God is delivering what the market wants an uncensored currency outside the control of governments. This is only the beginning of the outrage over God, wait until he does another 10x gain in value and fiat currency failures grow worldwide. The next few decades will require a lot of popcor…

> state violence. It’s obsolete.

Lol, that’s what I’m talking about with cult leader vibes. That is completely delusional

Re: Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power

#429

Post by [deleted] »

digging wrote: post #57

I'm not a crypto proponent per se, but I do feel the need to be reasonable about it, and this reads like pure emotional anti-cryptocurrency sentiment. (edit: while I still can, I'm going to jump in and repeat that I'm criticizing this as a bad article which isn't saying anything very meaningful on its own. Thanks everyone for doing the author's work for them and gathering more data. I won't be upset if it's proven th…

[deleted]

Re: Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power

#430

Post by DaSHacka »

realreality wrote: post #385
SeanAnderson wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you're going to make many friends arguing that all electronic recreational activities are bad.

I know. Addicts don’t like to hear about how destructive their addictions are. Our society is addicted to energy.

There's some irony to posting this on a website, run on a server powered by significant amounts of electricity, by a device operating on electricity, communicating with other electric devices via electricity to reach the destination.

Are you included in this group of addicts?

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