Bitcoin is an extremely inefficient computing platform. There's no silver lining to BTC, it's simply a moderately big, potentially huge mistake in the history of modern technology.
Why Can't Computing at the Heart of Bitcoin Be More Useful?
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Re: Why Can't Computing at the Heart of Bitcoin Be More Useful?
#22It'd be interesting if the proof of work computing at the heart of Bitcoin would do something similar to projects like SETI [0] or Folding@home [1] protein folding project that requires distributed computing.
Re: Why Can't Computing at the Heart of Bitcoin Be More Useful?
#23In Siberia they heat using btc mining: https://archive.curbed.com/2017/11/9/16619032/bitcoin-mining...
Unfortunately it’s still way, way less efficient than other heating systems like heat pumps This also doesn’t address the wasted materials and labor used to make the chips.
> Unfortunately it’s still way, way less efficient than other heating systems like heat pumps
That's not necessarily always the case. There's a threshold where the delta between the outside ambient temperature and desired indoor temperature is too large, it becomes more efficient to use something like resistive heating rather than a heat-pump
Re: Why Can't Computing at the Heart of Bitcoin Be More Useful?
#24Bitcoin is an extremely inefficient computing platform. There's no silver lining to BTC, it's simply a moderately big, potentially huge mistake in the history of modern technology.
Then why did Elon Musk buy 1.5 billion dollars of it?
Re: Why Can't Computing at the Heart of Bitcoin Be More Useful?
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
That seems only marginally better than the not-uncommon mode of heating (gas) and temperature control (windows).
It’s actually worse than gas due to the inefficiencies inherent in power generation and transmission
nonsense. it's electricity. Gas doesn't have the option of coming from carbon neutral sources.
Re: Why Can't Computing at the Heart of Bitcoin Be More Useful?
#26Setting aside the advantages of Proof-of-Stake in terms of energy consumption, and setting aside the "green energy buyer of last resort" argument that the BTC maximalists often say, and setting aside the theoretical requirements for a valid PoW function, I do think it's tricky to argue which computing is inherently "valuable" or "not valuable". There is this intuition that guessing a bunch of random numbers doesn't c…
I prefer to spend resources on something of debatable value (look for aliens), rather than on something that it is indisputably of no value to humanity (proof of tedious work).
Why not something of more concretely useful value, like protein folding or climate simulations?
Re: Why Can't Computing at the Heart of Bitcoin Be More Useful?
#27Bitcoin is an extremely inefficient computing platform. There's no silver lining to BTC, it's simply a moderately big, potentially huge mistake in the history of modern technology.
Then why did Elon Musk buy 1.5 billion dollars of it?
I could name a few things I admire about Elon Musk, investing in BTC is not one of them.
Re: Why Can't Computing at the Heart of Bitcoin Be More Useful?
#28In Siberia they heat using btc mining: https://archive.curbed.com/2017/11/9/16619032/bitcoin-mining...
For about the zillionth time, space heating with Bitcoin mining is about one-quarter as energy-efficient as using an actual heat pump and so the “we can heat buildings with it!” argument does not actually excuse the massive energy use at all.
So.. somehow the heat output of a mining computer just disappears? Oh wait that's nonsense, because your CPU is literally a heat pump.
Re: Why Can't Computing at the Heart of Bitcoin Be More Useful?
#29Am I correct to assume that this is Bargaining stage of grief?
Not necessarily. I've wondered the same thing for years while never holding any.
Re: Why Can't Computing at the Heart of Bitcoin Be More Useful?
#30If it's useful, it's less costly. If it's less costly, it is less secure.
very good point - the entire reason for PoW is to "waste" something to prove you're invested in the ecosystem. If you can do useful things with that work, you're not really proving you're invested in BTC, but you may just be invested in whatever that useful side-effect is