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The interesting thing to me about bitcoin's oligopoly of miners is that it is based on a real thing: "Hashing Power". This corresponds to real electricity usag
by narrator 10y ago
The interesting thing to me about bitcoin's oligopoly of miners is that it is based on a real thing: "Hashing Power". This corresponds to real electricity usage and real chip design. In most systems there is something holy, sacred and arbitrary in it that maintains the structure. Bitcoin suffers from this the least compared to other systems.
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y agoYes, Bitcoin is based on destroying the planet through causing climate change, a novel source of political power.
- Fej 10y agoI've been trying to tell people this for a while now. Bitcoin has to be the most wasteful software project ever made; I'm sure it has indirectly pumped millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere at this point. And for what? The blockchain is a neat academic piece for which we have yet to find a good use. Bitcoin is not usable as a currency (except for illicit trade) and it never will be. The only thing Bitcoin has ever been good for is as a pump & dump scheme, and the "dump" part already happened anyway. If we're going to blow so much computer power on raw calculations, we could use it for Folding@home, SETI@home, or any number of other great causes. But this is just a waste.
- emiliobumachar 10y agoWithout having crunched the numbers, I assume bitcoin mining is less harmful than gold and silver mining. So, beware of status quo bias.