81–90 of 1001 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It won't and even BTC enthusiasts have given up on that. They narrative is now that BTC is a "store of value".
It won't It won't for small transactions . Buying a car or a house with BTC could still be viable in the future.
From what I understand bitcoin currently has a $20+ transaction fee with a transaction time takes 60 minutes+ With these issues in addition to the high power consumption, how will Bitcoin become a usable currency?
It won't and even BTC enthusiasts have given up on that. They narrative is now that BTC is a "store of value".
While I agree with him that Bitcoin is a terrible currency, I think the "store of value" thing is nonsense as well. Stores of value need to have relatively stable value. Bitcoin is hugely volatile. That's great for speculation, but nobody with any sense would use it as the equivalent of a savings account.
Back in the days where all our electricity came from fossil fuels, I completely agree that marginal electricity usage was bad for the environment. However I think that thought has persisted with us even though it is no longer true 100% of the time. With renewables sometimes the marginal cost of electricity to our environment is near 0 or even negative (eg, during periods of higher winds and lower demand.)
I predict that in the future as bitcoin mining becomes more and more of an efficiency game that you will see bitcoin mining be kind of a load balancer the grid, effectively turning off during peak demand (or low supply) times and contributing to the base load during regular times.
For example, it may even help the economics of building new wind plants. Eg, currently it may not be profitable to build a new wind plant because base load is too low that the excess power generated would need to be sold off at 0 or even negative prices. However if bitcoin mining could be turned on during these times and off during periods of high demand, there will need to be fewer peaker plants in operation and it would positively affect the economics of opening a new wind plant.
Bitcoin mining only cares about the cost of electricity at a given time, it is not like most other electricity demands that are very time based. With the large variance of electricity generation by renewables, I think bitcoin can in the future help smooth demand according to the real supply/demand curve.
It's kind of like a different implementation of the Tesla utility grid batteries. Instead of deploying power, you force the grid to build more renewable capacity (that the miners are paying for) that you use except in peak periods, where you turn off and effectively provide the grid with more power.
Edit: here is an article of a bitcoin mining company doing just that:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-01/bitcoin-m... https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2020/05/21/ho...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It won't and even BTC enthusiasts have given up on that. They narrative is now that BTC is a "store of value".
It will. Via second and third layers. It'll scale just fine. An example second layer that you can use right now is the lightning network https://lightning.network/
And as Bitcoins get more scarce and get adopted by more and more banks and companies as reserves, the value of mining rewards is only going to continue rising, until Bitcoin will consume more electricity than the rest of the world combined. (Around the time it is worth $1.2 Million a coin.) Change my mind. Bitcoin rewards miners in Bitcoin, which is the ultimate deflationary “store of value”, and has the world mindsh…
Inflating the supply of bitcoins is a value in a config file + buy-in from miners, who are the ones with all the capital to benefit from inflating the supply. Unsure why you think the miners are just going to go home when it’s all mined and sell off their expensive equipment at firesale prices when they can collaborate to increase the amount of Bitcoin?
From what I understand bitcoin currently has a $20+ transaction fee with a transaction time takes 60 minutes+ With these issues in addition to the high power consumption, how will Bitcoin become a usable currency?
that ship has sailed long ago. it is now seen as a replacement for gold and a hedge against inflation
Nakamoto instilled within the Block's raw data: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."
From what I understand bitcoin currently has a $20+ transaction fee with a transaction time takes 60 minutes+ With these issues in addition to the high power consumption, how will Bitcoin become a usable currency?
> how will Bitcoin become a usable currency It won't, it's just a speculative asset.
Question that came to mind after reading the headline: could this become a future reason for governments to criminalise the trading / use of Bitcoin because of negative environmental effects? On the surface it seems the value of Bitcoin is directly tied to its energy consumption and thus environmental harm. I get that Bitcoin itself is decentralised and cannot be banned outright. But could it be neutered in such a wa…
After all the Bitcoin is mined, it will be the greenest crypto currency, yes?. What if we just accelerated the mining, or made them all available at once. Problem solved? Truth be told, I really don't know what I'm talking about. It just sounded good in my head.
I sincerely wish more people had your ability for introspection!
I'm tired of this BS about Bitcoin and pollution. So tired that yesterday I wrote this [0]. Of course you might be in complete disagreement with me, but please read it and let me know what you think. Be kind. I am trying to have a good conversation about it, not to impose my view. [0]: https://simon.medium.com/bitcoin-and-pollution-the-definitiv...
Is Bitcoin mining comparable to gold mining? It should rather be compared to the logistics and trading of gold maybe?