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(Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#21

Post by hackernudes »

silverquiet wrote: post #4

There was a comment here years ago that if an alien civilization wanted to wipe us out, there was perhaps no easier way for them to accomplish it than to send a crypto-currency whitepaper with anonymous authorship. I have to say it stuck with me.

I love the comment even though I disagree. It reminded me of a Charles Stross novel Singularity Sky. A civilization called The Festival gives advanced technology in exchange for "entertainment" (stories). Many worlds that come into contact with them are ruined overnight due to the sudden technological singularity.

His book Neptune's Brood revolves around cryptocurrency.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#22

Post by is_true »

silverquiet wrote: post #4

There was a comment here years ago that if an alien civilization wanted to wipe us out, there was perhaps no easier way for them to accomplish it than to send a crypto-currency whitepaper with anonymous authorship. I have to say it stuck with me.

Maybe oil companies, to ensure demand.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#24

Post by hackernudes »

Is it possible Bitcoin mining could help incentivize green energy? Bitcoin miners will pay for almost unlimited energy as long as it is cheap. Miners can turn on and off almost instantly. The grid can be improved by having lots of extra power that can be shifted to different needs at any moment. There is also stranded energy, like solar not yet connected to the grid or flared methane gas (at wells or landfills).

I don't think Ethereum uses excessive amounts of energy unless you also think data centers are bad in general. The consensus algorithms are more complicated than Bitcoin. Ethereum validators will lose part of their stake if caught cheating.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#25

Post by duped »

This is like arguing over the thermostat setting while your house is on fire. Crypto is a pittance of the global energy demand. The fundamental problem is that we are using fossil fuels to generate heat and electricity. Efforts to reduce demand for energy are not even worth talking about in my opinion, we need to stop the energy production that we know is killing the planet at the source.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#27

Post by tromp »

Daviey wrote: post #23

Research PoA and PoS and you'll see what you have suggested has been done.

Neither provides a fair distribution of coins.

Admittedly, neither does Bitcoin, what with every next generation getting to mine 32x less than the previous one. But PoW with a fixed block reward would come as close as possible.

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#28

Post by kixxauth »

b20000 wrote: post #14

I disagree, I think crypto is extremely important, much more important than social media for example, which has been shown to be toxic and to destroy people's health, on top of also requiring a lot of data center resources and thus being bad for the climate.

What aspects or use cases of crypto do you find important?

Re: (Opinion) Crypto mining is nonessential and is killing our climate

#29

Post by b20000 »

kixxauth wrote: post #28
b20000 wrote: post #14

I disagree, I think crypto is extremely important, much more important than social media for example, which has been shown to be toxic and to destroy people's health, on top of also requiring a lot of data center resources and thus being bad for the climate.

What aspects or use cases of crypto do you find important?

wait until the CBDC is implemented
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