Bitcoins for Good

#1

Post by listrophy » Tue, May 31, 2011, 3:20 PM UTC

Bitcoins for Good
namingthingsishard.com

Re: Bitcoins for Good

#2

Post by wccrawford » Tue, May 31, 2011, 3:49 PM UTC

I'm sure this was considered when BitCoin was being created. It's easy to -say-, but quite a lot harder to do.

Re: Bitcoins for Good

#3

Post by jonprins » Tue, May 31, 2011, 3:51 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #2

I'm sure this was considered when BitCoin was being created. It's easy to -say-, but quite a lot harder to do.

The author is fundamentally flawed in his approach. He thinks bitcoin mining is just mindless churning on your GPU.

But in reality, it's cryptographically checking the validity of bitcoin transactions. So the system churns for the benefit of the system itself, instead of churning for the benefit of some external goal.

Re: Bitcoins for Good

#4

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 31, 2011, 3:51 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #2

I'm sure this was considered when BitCoin was being created. It's easy to -say-, but quite a lot harder to do.

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoins for Good

#5

Post by heyrhett » Tue, May 31, 2011, 3:55 PM UTC

This is not practical. If bitcoins related to some sort of market value for computation, there would be inflation of 40% / year.

Look at how mining for bitcoins compares to mining for real gold. Our species spends all this energy to dig gold up out of the ground, purify it, just to stick it back into the ground in vaults and then we pay someone to stand watching over it.

Re: Bitcoins for Good

#6

Post by eof » Tue, May 31, 2011, 4:14 PM UTC

Killing two birds with one stone is laudable; but a fair, decentralized currency with a bird worth a stone by itself.

Re: Bitcoins for Good

#7

Post by abulafia » Tue, May 31, 2011, 4:15 PM UTC

This would be a significantly better project than bitcoin, and it would be possible, it just wouldn't serve the same purpose. What it would do is value time and effort; what it wouldn't do is waste pointless cycles and energy to make hidden currency. This currency would be valuable because someone put energy toward social good. In contrast, bitcoins are valuable because there's a limited quantity of them and their usage can be hidden. Hence, limitless "bitcoins for good" could be created, in a vibrant and dynamic economy, while highly deflationary bitcoins will simply sit in a miser's coffee can buried in the backyard.

Re: Bitcoins for Good

#8

Post by eli » Tue, May 31, 2011, 4:26 PM UTC

jonprins wrote: post #3

wccrawford wrote: post #2

I'm sure this was considered when BitCoin was being created. It's easy to -say-, but quite a lot harder to do.

The author is fundamentally flawed in his approach. He thinks bitcoin mining is just mindless churning on your GPU. But in reality, it's cryptographically checking the validity of bitcoin transactions. So the system churns for the benefit of the system itself, instead of churning for the benefit of some external goal.

No, I think everyone is on the same page. It's just semantics: mining is a mindless task, it just happens that bitcoin requires verifiable but otherwise pointless tasks in order to operate.

And I don't think you should dismiss this criticism so easily. I personally have very little confidence in bitcoin as a currency. But if the system also contributed to science by folding proteins or finding Mersenne primes or doing anything else that is externally useful, I would consider participating.

Re: Bitcoins for Good

#9

Post by eli » Tue, May 31, 2011, 4:29 PM UTC

heyrhett wrote: post #5

This is not practical. If bitcoins related to some sort of market value for computation, there would be inflation of 40% / year. Look at how mining for bitcoins compares to mining for real gold. Our species spends all this energy to dig gold up out of the ground, purify it, just to stick it back into the ground in vaults and then we pay someone to stand watching over it.

Sorry, I don't follow. Where does 40% come from?

And to state the obvious, not all gold goes in vaults. Both the supply and demand for gold is affected by its fashion and industrial uses.

Re: Bitcoins for Good

#10

Post by hugh3 » Tue, May 31, 2011, 4:29 PM UTC

eli wrote: post #8

jonprins wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author is fundamentally flawed in his approach. He thinks bitcoin mining is just mindless churning on your GPU. But in reality, it's cryptographically checking the validity of bitcoin transactions. So the system churns for the benefit of the system itself, instead of churning for the benefit of some external goal.

No, I think everyone is on the same page. It's just semantics: mining is a mindless task, it just happens that bitcoin requires verifiable but otherwise pointless tasks in order to operate. And I don't think you should dismiss this criticism so easily. I personally have very little confidence in bitcoin as a currency. But if the system also contributed to science by folding proteins or finding Mersenne primes or doin…

Is there any actual value to finding Mersenne primes? Genuinely curious.