Earlier quoted context omitted.
"BTC is a sure bet in the long run " 7 transactions per second is NOT a sure bet.
At 7 TSP BTC is far more fungible than Gold.
That doesn't make any sense at all.
Sabotaging Bitcoin
191–200 of 224 posts
Re: Sabotaging Bitcoin
#192Bitcoin is the least efficient technology ever created. There is no limit to how much electricity it can consume just to handle 7 transactions per second. No matter HOW much electricity it uses this value will never increase.
There is a limit. The cost of electricity required is bounded by the value of the reward (block reward plus transaction fees). The value of the reward is bounded too, since the "import" of electricity into the Bitcoin economy is inflationary.
Then making the block reward halve every 4 years is a pretty strange decision.
Re: Sabotaging Bitcoin
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cars have the benefit of transporting humans and goods around. It's more like saying a hypothetical car which moves itself by using gasoline as a propellant rather than fuel for its combustion engine would have negative value. Sure, using fuel (of all things) for propulsion would be one way to move a vehicle, but it would be inefficient by design. Bitcoin, at least, was created during a time where there was no altern…
Bitcoin has the benefit of being the first way in human history of being able to transfer value between two countries in a way that a corrupt bureaucrat, judge, or customs official can't freeze, reverse, or steal it. That's the benefit Bitcoin brings humanity, and to me, I prefer it to having a car. Proof of Stake is an absurd security proposition. Stakeholders are immediately centralized. In every single PoS coin, t…
Bitcoin consumes 20 to 40GW to process 7 transactions per second. Using 30GW means about 4 billion joules per transaction. And transactions per second don't scale with more electricity. It is the least efficient technology ever created.
Re: Sabotaging Bitcoin
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Property rights are enforced with guns.
That's why Monero is superior; no amount of guns is going to help somebody steal property that they don't know you have.
A 5$ wrench bar is enough to make you give me all the moneroj you have eventually. I won't know when that point is and will just continue using the wrench until I am sufficiently sure you have given me all.
Re: Sabotaging Bitcoin
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's very wrong. Futures contracts on traditional exchanges have no counterparty risk and require the deposit of a significant amount of upfront capital as collateral. If the spot price of the underlying moves in either direction, debits or credits are made to and from each margin account and if you don't have the money to cover a margin call, the contract gets closed.
Future markets give traders leverage of 100x sometimes or more. Margin requirements are much lower than trading spot.
Margin requirements for trading spot are zero, though initial capital requirements are obviously, well, whatever spot is.
Futures contracts aren't just pieces of paper traded between people, they are actual promises to pay for physical delivery of the underlying.
It's not surprising to me that crypto people consider them nothing more than leveraged gambling slips but that's really not how one should think about them. Personally I think crypto needs far heavier regulation than it gets.
Re: Sabotaging Bitcoin
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea is that you can start with the next head earlier than all the others, giving you an edge in being the first to find the next block.
But what do they gain by doing that? What's the edge? Starting earlier doesn't give you any advantage.
There is an advantage because occasionally you find the second block while the first block is still secret, then you release the two blocks in quick succession. That’s the edge.
Re: Sabotaging Bitcoin
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure what data you looking at but we went from 8300 J/TH in 2014 to 33.4 J/TH in 2023. So... what are you talking about?
They have a graph at the bottom with the name I provided "Estimated average energy efficiency of bitcoin mining hardware"
You're reading the graph wrong, but I still have no idea how you are. Joules per terahash has declined from 8297 in 2014 to 33 in 2023 (the latest year they have data), a 99.996% reduction, or a 250x improvement in efficiency.
Re: Sabotaging Bitcoin
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The probability of finding a block is always the same, given a hashrate. I think you are missing something very basic here: the longer you compute, the higher the likelihood that you will find the hash before the others. The extreme case being that if you can try ALL the possibilities before the others can start, then you are guarantee to find the solution before them.
That's only mathematically true. The advantage is way too small to be relevant. Your advantage is having exhausted a fraction of the search space. But that fraction is tiny. You're trying to find a hash with a value below a certain threshold (simplified said, a hash starting with a certain amount of zeroes). You do this by trying random inputs to the hash function. Every input has the same probability of getting an o…
> The advantage is way too small to be relevant.
That's the whole question: is it relevant or not? Even if it makes mining slightly more profitable, that's a win. No need to remind you that those who mine do it exclusively for profit.
Re: Sabotaging Bitcoin
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Starting earlier doesn't give you any advantage It's a race. Starting earlier obviously gives an advantage?!
No it's not a race, it's a lottery. It would be like saying you've an edge if you start earlier at the roulette.
...it's not a race, it's a lottery.
Yes, but everyone else is still buying tickets for yesterday's jackpot, while you're busy accumulating them for tomorrow's.
Re: Sabotaging Bitcoin
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Future markets give traders leverage of 100x sometimes or more. Margin requirements are much lower than trading spot.
Margin requirements for trading spot are zero, though initial capital requirements are obviously, well, whatever spot is. Futures contracts aren't just pieces of paper traded between people, they are actual promises to pay for physical delivery of the underlying. It's not surprising to me that crypto people consider them nothing more than leveraged gambling slips but that's really not how one should think about them.…
Ever heard of liquidations?