WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days • Hacker News Board

Re: WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

#91

Post by SyzygistSix » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 12:14 PM UTC

tudorw wrote: post #48

skohan wrote: post #24

Just to put this in perspective, the global population of mountain gorillas is 1,063, so this represents the symbolic adoption of over 3 times the mountain gorillas alive in the wild! I hope this unexpected boon in capital will allow for some meaningful work in preserving and protecting these rare animals. It would be an interesting footnote in history if we can look back in 50 years and draw a line between an intern…

Can someone get busy wrapping endangered species as NFT's and direct the funds accordingly, timing seems about right...

Most likely the anti-poaching squads will get better funding. As it is they are poorly paid and do a lot of work with shabby equipment.

Re: WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

#92

Post by scotty79 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 12:17 PM UTC

tudorw wrote: post #48

skohan wrote: post #24

Just to put this in perspective, the global population of mountain gorillas is 1,063, so this represents the symbolic adoption of over 3 times the mountain gorillas alive in the wild! I hope this unexpected boon in capital will allow for some meaningful work in preserving and protecting these rare animals. It would be an interesting footnote in history if we can look back in 50 years and draw a line between an intern…

Can someone get busy wrapping endangered species as NFT's and direct the funds accordingly, timing seems about right...

NFT doesen't work like that. After minting it has nothing to do with the initial cause.

It could work if they released and auctioned new NFT for each gorilla periodically.

Re: WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

#93

Post by SyzygistSix » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 12:17 PM UTC

lower wrote: post #86

skohan wrote: post #24

Just to put this in perspective, the global population of mountain gorillas is 1,063, so this represents the symbolic adoption of over 3 times the mountain gorillas alive in the wild! I hope this unexpected boon in capital will allow for some meaningful work in preserving and protecting these rare animals. It would be an interesting footnote in history if we can look back in 50 years and draw a line between an intern…

You mean they've been short-selling gorillas?

No, we have been short-selling the environment gorillas live in. And people are straight up poaching gorillas as well.

Re: WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

#94

Post by adflux » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 12:21 PM UTC

cik wrote: post #80

oakesm9 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more like sponsoring them so the charity can protect them from poachers and study them

Ever wonder if we're going about this all wrong. What if the real value was paying poachers to not poach?

Definition of perverse incentive. How do you imagine this to work?

Re: WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

#95

Post by vmception » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC

pas wrote: post #78

mszcz wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that cryptocurrency energy consumption is as big a problem as it's been recently painted in the media. Bitcoin, Ethereum etc. are, potentially, self-contained, almost complete, final, financial systems. Using a VISA card (for instance to make the same contribution to wild-life preservation) would use a fraction of the energy that's used to sustain cryptocurrencies, sure, but that's not a fair comparison…

The estimated energy consumption of BTC is between the electricity consumption of Ukraine and Argentina. It's as if everyone would be a banker in Ukraine and every building would be a bank. Seems excessive.

And how many countries of energy does the other financial system use, for comparison?

Re: WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

#96

Post by imtringued » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC

mszcz wrote: post #83

pas wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The estimated energy consumption of BTC is between the electricity consumption of Ukraine and Argentina. It's as if everyone would be a banker in Ukraine and every building would be a bank. Seems excessive.

I didn't do the math on this one, but it seems to me that the whole financial system (and all that's needed to ensure it's reliability and security) uses a bit more energy than Ukraine or Argentina.

The infrastructure supporting hundreds of national currencies, hundreds of stock exchanges, thousands of banks, hundreds of payment providers and cryptocurrency exchanges vs a single distributed ledger (basically a piece of paper). Bitcoin has 200 million users at most if you are really generous. It's really not a fair comparison. You would have to combine all cryptocurrencies and their energy consumption to even approach a fair comparison.

The energy usage is only used for mining, it's not even used to secure and ensure its reliability on exchanges whose energy consumption is actually counted against the mining energy. The energy consumption will grow simply because Bitcoin is going up, not because Bitcoin is processing more transactions or providing value in any form. Yes bigger banks need more energy but they can also provide more services thanks to their increased size.

Bitcoin doesn't even compete with Banks because Banks offer loans, consolidate small deposits into large capital reserves, etc. Bitcoin doesn't compete with stocks because Bitcoin ownership doesn't represent an ownership stake in the Bitcoin industry or any other industry. Bitcoin doesn't compete with payment providers because it is too slow and expensive. Bitcoin doesn't compete against cryptocurrency exchanges. Ethereum with its uniswap protocol may do so but that's not Bitcoin. Ethereum provides more value for less energy consumption than bitcoin. The only thing Bitcoin really competes against is gold because of the proof of ownership. You own your Bitcoin in your wallet the same way you own your car or house (after paying your mortgage or car loan off of course).

Bonus:

Why did I compare Bitcoin to a piece of paper? Because the people working in finance are part of the finance system. In Bitcoin only the miners are part of the system. So ultimately you just have a fancy piece of paper on which you cannot write lies on. With the finance system it is closer to bodyguards guarding the paper and making sure nobody can write on it. Again, people are part of the system. It's not just the paper that is important.

Re: WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

#97

Post by SyzygistSix » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC

scandox wrote: post #34

leg100 wrote: post #16

“But we all know the wag’s definition of a philanthropist: a man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance.” ― George Eliot, Middlemarch

I think is a fair comment. The people involved probably wouldn't give the steam off their coffee to the someone struggling right in front of them.

What you are missing is that this allows people who are otherwise unable to help to do so. Helping animals has always been somewhat more popular than helping people because people have more agency and also tend to suck.

What do you suggest we do for the people struggling in front of us? Also that is a broad brush you are painting a lot of people with. It's likely that many /r/wallstreetbets users donate to other charities. Americans tend to be quite generous.

Re: WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

#98

Post by SyzygistSix » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 12:26 PM UTC

habosa wrote: post #39

scandox wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think is a fair comment. The people involved probably wouldn't give the steam off their coffee to the someone struggling right in front of them.

Reddit has always been a place where you can find spontaneous generosity with a fun twist. Just one example: there was a popular sub many years ago called "randomactsofpizza" where Redditors would send pizza to other Redditors who were hungry or down on their luck. I don't know why we should assume Redditors are less charitable than people at large when if anything they've demonstrated otherwise.

On the gorilla front, the AR15 subreddit helped the anti-poaching squads with technical advice and parts to help protect gorillas.

It's a good venue for charity and people helping others. No one who has spent much time with humans should be shocked that the same people are also sardonic assholes at times.

Re: WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

#99

Post by BelleOfTheBall » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 12:26 PM UTC

dmos62 wrote: post #61

skohan wrote: post #24

Just to put this in perspective, the global population of mountain gorillas is 1,063, so this represents the symbolic adoption of over 3 times the mountain gorillas alive in the wild! I hope this unexpected boon in capital will allow for some meaningful work in preserving and protecting these rare animals. It would be an interesting footnote in history if we can look back in 50 years and draw a line between an intern…

> the global population of mountain gorillas is 1,063 Who will be producing the rest of the gorillas?

When a momma gorilla and a papa gorilla love each other very much... (and significant resources are dedicated to keeping them safe, content and ready to procreate, which is what I'm assuming Reddit has achieved.)

Re: WallStreetBets members adopt 3,500 gorillas in six days

#100

Post by ohgodplsno » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 12:26 PM UTC

mszcz wrote: post #83

pas wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The estimated energy consumption of BTC is between the electricity consumption of Ukraine and Argentina. It's as if everyone would be a banker in Ukraine and every building would be a bank. Seems excessive.

I didn't do the math on this one, but it seems to me that the whole financial system (and all that's needed to ensure it's reliability and security) uses a bit more energy than Ukraine or Argentina.

The whole financial system actually has some usefulness: you can pay for things with it. Anywhere in the world. Without paying $30 in fees, without waiting for 3 days to clear. It's also not likely to run on 60% coal.

Since bitcoin zealots have moved to pretending that it's a "store of value", you can compare Bitcoin to the energy used to secure the gold in the world. Hint: it's much more worse.