231–240 of 319 posts
It is not a battery if you cannot get electricity out when needed. It's a weird analogy for something that does not store energy in any form
Since a bitcoin is a monetary form of energy, and since the bitcoin network is so readily available, we could build layers on top of the network to enable quicker conversion of monetary energy to electrical energy.
Bitcoin enthusiast here. Pretty surprising how antagonistic the HN crowd is to bitcoin.
Bitcoin cannot be stopped by a government. The crypto math makes it so valuable to lock in your wealth.
(Also it's newer and more upvoted but for some reason no longer on the front page?)
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> You don't get more bitcoin for more electricity, you just get more security. Specifically, more security for the next block, only. Once that block is mined, the process starts all over again for the next block. The energy usage reset button is pressed as soon as each block is mined. No energy is "stored".
Bitcoin itself is energy or can be converted into energy. If I can buy wood to burn for energy with Bitcoin, I am converting mined Bitcoin into energy.
and is the tree I am cutting a battery too?
wouldn't it be easier (and more sustainable) then to plant trees than mine bitcoins?
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> It was made to be able to do digital transactions without any trusted 3rd party. Which is what makes it even more absurd that people are claiming that adding centralized layers on top of Bitcoin is a valid solution to the cost and speed of transactions. They're devoted to Bitcoin itself above any of the reasons why the technology was built in the first place. But if people don't actually care about having distribut…
> Proof of Work/Stake only matter if Bitcoin is actually being used as a trustless and anonymous payment system for regular transactions, which is ironically the task that (among most other cryptocurrencies on the market) it's perhaps least suited for technologically. I agree that many cryptocurrencies are not suited for this... but some are, and of those, Cardano is proof-of-stake from launch, has ~50 billion USD ma…
I agree that there are other parts of the full crypto ecosystem that are leveraging blockchain more effectively. I don't know how optimistic I am about them overall, but at the very least on the technology side of things they certainly have a lot more potential to turn into real payment systems than Bitcoin does, and I don't mean to disparage the people working on them.
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This is an excellent take on why the Grossman's idea is plainly idiotic [0]. You don't get more bitcoin for more electricity, you just get more security. The system itself can reach a state when you need 51% of whole planet electricity and computation devices locked into it to be perfectly secure. Thats frankly scary. [0] https://elad-verbin.medium.com/bitcoin-is-not-a-battery-it-i...
Idiotic all the way. If aluminum can be perceived as a battery, then everything else can be. "Poop as a Battery (PaaB)" (am I the first to use this?)(no I won't DDG it). In that sense, Bill Gatess "Reinvented Toilet" does kinda the same. People pee and poop, sewage is processed and is converted to clean water and can produce energy [0]. Thus PaaB(!?) [0]: https://www.elitereaders.com/waterless-toilet-system-generat..…
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I agree with the sentiment, but this part is way off: > [...] despite being one of the most fiat currencies by definition [...] FIAT currencies are by design inflationary to enhance spending. Bitcoin is deflationary _by design_. Since there's no bank or state backing Bitcoin, the only way that bitcoin makes sense was/is deflation. This quality makes BTC an asset and that's what it is, a digital asset. As a currency B…
how would you quality VISA and Tesla accepting bitcoin ? does it qualify as asset tranfer or currency ? (open question)
Bitcoin enthusiast here. Pretty surprising how antagonistic the HN crowd is to bitcoin.
That's also why hackers may be the first to figure out the catastrophic failure of cryptocurrency, or perhaps ALL cryptocurrency as a class, or the exploit to disrupt the disruptor and render cryptocurrency a useless dead end. It's founded on assumptions both explicit and implicit. One of the implicit ones is that capitalism will continue to be the force that checkmates any argument against crypto: get enough capital into it and the capital will seek to protect itself, honestly or dishonestly, peacefully or violently, with no consideration for any other concern.
Hackers are capable of thinking through that scenario and asking whether, by contrast, something like bitcoin might be the exploit that destroys capitalism by increasing its efficiencies until they're untenable.
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Refined aluminum is in quite a high-energy state. Chemically you could extract energy or make electricity from aluminum. It's used in some types of military explosives. Because the refining takes so much electricity, some well-meaning people suggest running it at times of low demand to balance the grid. But refining is capital intensive so you don't want to turn it off or you miss out on the returns from the investme…
You're right. If we further expand the idea we can extract energy from anything flammable or otherwise reactant. I'll refrain from calling my dog a battery though. Now excuse me while I go feed little Duracell. Good girl!