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Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

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Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#131

Post by Triv888 »

UncleMeat wrote: post #123
Triv888 wrote: post #121

If you stop mining bitcoins, Bitcoin would not disappear....

If you stop mining bitcoins, anybody with a small rig can produce a double spend and destroy all trust in the network. It wouldn't disappear, but the coins wouldn't be worth much.

Proof of stake would solve that?

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#132

Post by nieve »

Triv888 wrote: post #131
UncleMeat wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you stop mining bitcoins, anybody with a small rig can produce a double spend and destroy all trust in the network. It wouldn't disappear, but the coins wouldn't be worth much.

Proof of stake would solve that?

But then you're no longer talking about Bitcoin.

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#133

Post by nikanj »

muskox2 wrote: post #125
Triv888 wrote: post #121

If you stop mining bitcoins, Bitcoin would not disappear....

If no more bitcoins were mined, you couldn't move bitcoins around. You can only include new transactions by mining a new block.

It could move to the exchanges moving around IOUs. It's not like actual gold moves around every time I buy some on the internet, someone just moves data in a giant excel somewhere.

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#134

Post by torgian »

rootusrootus wrote: post #118
torgian wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about the value of gold. You might buy gold, but can you actually, physically hold it and own it? As far as I know, the only way you can buy gold is if you either buy jewelry or are a jeweler to make said jewelry. Otherwise you’re just buying stocks which could theoretically be lost in the digital wind.

You can definitely buy gold coins. I have one in my desk drawer right now, even.

I wonder how much that is marked up, however. Compared to just buying bare gold, I mean.

Obviously even bare gold would have a markup, but probably not as much as coins.

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#135

Post by Triv888 »

nieve wrote: post #132
Triv888 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proof of stake would solve that?

But then you're no longer talking about Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is whatever the majority decides... They could also increase the supply if they wanted to, or whatever other change comes to mind? Think of it as Bitcoin 3.0, 4.0, etc...

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#136

Post by amir734jj »

tempestn wrote: post #89
amir734jj wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an owner of 50 bitcoins that I bought in 2010, I must say I agree with you. I don't see bitcoin as a future of money nor payment.

I'm curious, did you originally own more than 50? If not, do you have a plan for when you will sell? I know if I'd bought 50 bitcoins back in 2010 I would have sold them, or at least most of them, many times over by now.

There was a YouTube video explaining how to buy bitcoin and I got curious. I bought 50 because I originally wanted to but 5 and I accidentally added 0. I intended to spend 10 dollars but I accidentally spent 100 dollars. I tried everything to get my money back but it was too late. Fast forward to 2015 I remembered bought some bitcoin in highschool and I have my key stored in a flash drive. That flashdrive was like external hard drive for me at that time.

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#137

Post by amir734jj »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #46
amir734jj wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an owner of 50 bitcoins that I bought in 2010, I must say I agree with you. I don't see bitcoin as a future of money nor payment.

Congratulations. You can now retire.

Nope. I'm doing PhD in computer science now and I work full time as a software engineer and teach at university. I'm not retiring anytime soon :)

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#138

Post by amir734jj »

abledon wrote: post #35
amir734jj wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an owner of 50 bitcoins that I bought in 2010, I must say I agree with you. I don't see bitcoin as a future of money nor payment.

what about Ethereum?

I didn't know what Ethereum was at that time. I was 16. Cryptocurrency I think is a bubble. I hope it bursts.

Re: Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

#139

Post by eurasiantiger »

flyinglizard wrote: post #52
eurasiantiger wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That equivalence exists in the domain of classical physics. Bitcoin only exists in semiconductor systems: its ineffectiveness stems from the extra logical layer (gates on silicon) which, while based on quantum effects, does not utilize quantum effects directly for calculation.

Doesn’t any method by which work is done, in a proof of work system, consume energy?

Locally and classically, yes. But quantum effects demonstrably break locality. Call it quantum woo if you want, but the reality is that we perceive the world top-down and know incredibly little of how our universe actually functions from the bottom up.
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