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Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

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Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#141

Post by zepto »

Isinlor wrote: post #92
_Microft wrote: post #57

We should define something like a "Nakamoto scale" . A Nakamoto Type I civilization would be one that converts all available power of a planet into waste heat and funny numbers, a Nakamoto Type II civilization does that with all the power output of a star and so on... basically the Kardashev scale [0] but with the restriction that useful output SHOULD NOT be produced [1]. Edit: lowered requirement level from MUST NOT…

This is basically what all life does. Thermodynamically, life can be described as an open system which makes use of gradients in its surroundings to create imperfect copies of itself. Crypto currencies still have a problem with creating copies of itself, but humans are happy to oblige.

Not really.

Life transforms matter and energy into increasing structure and complexity.

A classic pathological life-like process is the paperclip maximizer.

The paperclip maximizer transforms matter and energy into a regular structure of low complexity.

Crypto is one step worse than the paperclip maximizer. It converts matter and energy into pseudo-random numbers.

The only structure discernible within the randomness is the mechanism that induces organic lifeforms to work on behalf of crypto.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#142

Post by Isinlor »

maxerickson wrote: post #140
Isinlor wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not, unless you think that e.g. cyanobacteria causing the Great Oxidation Event were somehow objectively more useful than cryptocurrencies. Mind you the Great Oxidation Event wiped good chunk of life back then. Mainly because oxygen was toxic to anaerobic life and it also oxidized methane making Earth into a snowball.

For all us, uh, air breathing mammals, yes, the great oxidation event was a great deal more useful, objectively, than cryptocurrencies.

The main point is that this hunger for resources without regard for consequences is the very core of life.

We did not exist back then. And cyanobacteria did not have a great plan of creating mammals.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#143

Post by Uberphallus »

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #82
Uberphallus wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been there during my urbex days. Frozen conflict zone, not unlike Transnistria, South Ossetia or Nagorno Karabakh. The border is militarized, except the Georgian side which doesn't seem to consider Abkhazia a threat. Lots of abandoned infrastructure because the native Georgian population was killed and/or fleed, and hasn't been harnessed for some reason. Abkhaz cross the border daily to buy basic stuff from Geor…

It's worth noting that the Georgian majority population was ethnically cleansed (with >5000 civilians killed) from Abkhazia by separatists, with full support and encouragement of Russia[0]. The preeminent Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev, later responsible for Beslan school siege and other attacks, took part in this war on the Abkhaz side, after being trained for the purpose by the GRU (Russian military intelligence…

Yeah, it was crazy. The fact that it was the majority meant loads of stuff would stay empty/unused, which remains true even today. I have footage from a massive seaside resort in the center of the capital [0] to give people an idea.

Unfortunately, there are always two sides to every story, and both sides were pretty nasty to each other[1]. But agree, it's hard to side with Basayev on this war, or any other really.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSi88CLRuZE

[1] http://www.unpo.org/downloads/AbkGeo1992Report.pdf

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#144

Post by maxerickson »

Isinlor wrote: post #142
maxerickson wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all us, uh, air breathing mammals, yes, the great oxidation event was a great deal more useful, objectively, than cryptocurrencies.

The main point is that this hunger for resources without regard for consequences is the very core of life. We did not exist back then. And cyanobacteria did not have a great plan of creating mammals.

Note that I qualified my statement. I didn't say that the great oxygenation event was objectively useful to the moon, I said it was objectively more useful to air breathing mammals than running difficult computations to control write access to a ledger.

The random waste from cryptocurrencies just turns into heat, so I expect it opens up ~zero new possibilities. Have fun though!

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#145

Post by [deleted] »

_Microft wrote: post #57

We should define something like a "Nakamoto scale" . A Nakamoto Type I civilization would be one that converts all available power of a planet into waste heat and funny numbers, a Nakamoto Type II civilization does that with all the power output of a star and so on... basically the Kardashev scale [0] but with the restriction that useful output SHOULD NOT be produced [1]. Edit: lowered requirement level from MUST NOT…

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#146

Post by abriosi »

_Microft wrote: post #57

We should define something like a "Nakamoto scale" . A Nakamoto Type I civilization would be one that converts all available power of a planet into waste heat and funny numbers, a Nakamoto Type II civilization does that with all the power output of a star and so on... basically the Kardashev scale [0] but with the restriction that useful output SHOULD NOT be produced [1]. Edit: lowered requirement level from MUST NOT…

Ahah. Someone should write "BTC respects the second law of thermodynamics"

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#147

Post by fredfoobar »

aeturnum wrote: post #134

I think some of the furor over bitcoin power usage is overblown. It's true, as crypto folks say, that the power is doing "something." It's more that...a system where you will pay anyone who finds any cheap power source anywhere in the internet-connected world no matter how they get it is obviously going to have awful externalities. Even though most people will be reasonably ok about it, enough people we be shitty eno…

Something = securing the network. Not with armies, but with math and computation.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#149

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Jonnax wrote: post #5

How does the network protocol of bitcoin work? Would governments be able to block it? Can it be DDoS-ed?

> Would governments be able to block it?

Deep packet inspect the network, raid current users and miners, then degrade the network for a few months for everyone. After that, random enforcement. Incentivise by letting police privately seize Bitcoin from the populace.

The idea that a protocol is immune to state violence because it can be sneaky is absurd.

Re: Bitcoin miners in Abkhazia are causing blackouts in remote villages [video]

#150

Post by Shivetya »

_Microft wrote: post #57

We should define something like a "Nakamoto scale" . A Nakamoto Type I civilization would be one that converts all available power of a planet into waste heat and funny numbers, a Nakamoto Type II civilization does that with all the power output of a star and so on... basically the Kardashev scale [0] but with the restriction that useful output SHOULD NOT be produced [1]. Edit: lowered requirement level from MUST NOT…

I am curious how long after renewable energy displaces conventional methods combined with the predicted big reduction in pricing before heat becomes the next pollution bogey.

the cheaper it gets will just increase its use which for much of the world is a great improvement in quality of life but there is always some costs involved

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