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Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

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Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#351

Post by Stevvo »

oraphalous wrote: post #331
tomxor wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It also uses less than all idle devices plugged in, in the US I'd bet that _all_ idle "devices" in in the US are providing far more utility by being ready and available to do ... anything (you did say all), than bitcoin which is _only_ a vehicle for speculating on intrinsic value being used by a tiny minority. Sorry but I'm fed up of these stupid comparisons, if bitcoin uses 0.56% of the worlds electricity, there a…

Having a reliable store of value - is itself extremely valuable. At least to me... and to quite a few others apparently, with more and more by the day.

Bitcoin is about as "reliable" as a store of value as a casino chip placed on black on the blackjack table.

Bitcoin has many virtues, but a "store or value" is demonstrably not one of them. Why do you, and many others, feel that it is in spite of its volatility?

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#352

Post by vmception »

tdrgabi wrote: post #347
vmception wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the same amount of bitcoin would have been mined. what did you mean?

Less powerful computers, so they would spend more time to find the same amount, I guess

well that's not how bitcoin works. they would have found the same amount in the same amount of time. the network is adaptive.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#353

Post by CyanBird »

needle0 wrote: post #348

After all the years I'm still having trouble comprehending what Bitcoin - and Bitcoin in specific - is useful for aside from speculation. I get that Ethereum and several other cryptocurrencies have the ability to execute code on the blockchain, enabling useful applications, and that stablecoins could be used for everyday payment due to it not fluctuating wildly (at least in theory). As I understand it, Bitcoin has ne…

The Chinese Central Bank has smartly labeled Bitcoin and other Crypto as "Digital Gambling Assets".... So that should give you an idea...

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#354

Post by adriancr »

solosoyokaze wrote: post #278
qeternity wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, what flavor koolaid do you prefer?

Not sure I understand your question. You can compare BTC to the S&P 500 yourself to see which has offered a far better return over the past decade.

one example: 500$ to 1M in 1 year on tesla calls.

50k to 15M in GME calls in less then 1 month if you were lucky.

It's all gambling but to say bitcoin is the best source of wealth/gambling shows your lack of experience.

Where would you put your money now that bitcoin is 50k?

I want to compare that to my stock + calls on random meme stocks. (also vs s&p)

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#355

Post by shawnz »

Stevvo wrote: post #351
oraphalous wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a reliable store of value - is itself extremely valuable. At least to me... and to quite a few others apparently, with more and more by the day.

Bitcoin is about as "reliable" as a store of value as a casino chip placed on black on the blackjack table. Bitcoin has many virtues, but a "store or value" is demonstrably not one of them. Why do you, and many others, feel that it is in spite of its volatility?

There are a few counterarguments to this.

> about as "reliable" as a store of value as a casino chip

Casino analogies are misleading because the problem with the casino is that the expected outcome is negative. The problem with the casino isn't the volatility.

There are plenty of stores of value which have extreme volatility but are still prized by investors, like real estate or artwork.

> demonstrably not one of them

We are talking about an asset class that has existed for about 1 decade. Nobody is really sure what it will be able to achieve, but its ability to act as a store of value seems promising. As more people form their opinion about this and other matters related to cryptocurrencies, we should expect the volatility to decrease. So the volatility at the current moment is not really a good indicator for the long-term volatility.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#356

Post by gjs278 »

needle0 wrote: post #348

After all the years I'm still having trouble comprehending what Bitcoin - and Bitcoin in specific - is useful for aside from speculation. I get that Ethereum and several other cryptocurrencies have the ability to execute code on the blockchain, enabling useful applications, and that stablecoins could be used for everyday payment due to it not fluctuating wildly (at least in theory). As I understand it, Bitcoin has ne…

stablecoins can be manipulated and not have the actual value backing them. and they can be reversed.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#357

Post by tromp »

willbudd wrote: post #265
tromp wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are cryptocurrencies that work without proof-of-work And they don't have a fair distribution mechanism. They exist primarily to make their creators rich.

Those two statements capture perfectly what I think of Bitcoin too with its ridiculously deflationary block reward-halving algorithm. Anyway, yes, I agree that 99% percent of existing cryptocurrency implementations are at least partially affected by short-sighted greed. However, I think it's important to note that there is no technological constraint preventing the potential success of more egalitarian implementation…

I agree reward halving help to concentrate the wealth on early adopters. The simplest and arguably fairest emission would just fix the block subsidy. I'm aware of only one coin that has adopted such an emission.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#358

Post by nmfisher »

dualvectorfoil wrote: post #5

Unrelated to the algorithm, I’ve found that doing things “by hand” is a surprisingly good way to develop intuition for otherwise opaque concepts. I wonder if it’s a function of doing work more slowly or paying closer attention. Examples include writing code written by others and working through math on paper.

I’m going through this right now, pages and pages into a manual calculation of a small factorial HMM.

Not only does it help thoroughly internalise the concepts, it’s the only way I can be sure I have no bugs in my digital implementation.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#359

Post by dorgo »

needle0 wrote: post #348

After all the years I'm still having trouble comprehending what Bitcoin - and Bitcoin in specific - is useful for aside from speculation. I get that Ethereum and several other cryptocurrencies have the ability to execute code on the blockchain, enabling useful applications, and that stablecoins could be used for everyday payment due to it not fluctuating wildly (at least in theory). As I understand it, Bitcoin has ne…

Bitcoin is usefull as an entry point and a figurehead of the crypto world. Its fame fuels/advances other projects. It also has a historic value (first crypto currency).

What was the first computer useful for? Probably for more than bitcoin today, but its value was not its usefulness at the time.

Re: Mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper: 0.67 hashes per day (2014)

#360

Post by Griffinsauce »

trident5000 wrote: post #305
bobviolier wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The digiconomist actually compared watching Youtube with a single bitcoin transaction (don't know the specifics and how accurate), but they said 1 btc transaction is the same as 51.000 hours of watching YouTube: https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/

Comparing BTC mining to a small country is just absurd. You could do the same with hundreds of other applications aside from YouTube like all social media servers, gaming, existing banking infrastructure, etc. Also Bitcoin arguably replaces gold which uses more energy and is more destructive to land (while using fossil fuels instead of mostly renewable energy like BTC). Lastly how much energy do we think the dollar w…

Your last statement is based on exactly zero data points.

Let me provide one counter though: I couldn't give a rats ass whether you outmanouver me financially, I do care whether my child has a livable planet for his lifetime.

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