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Bitcoin is becoming solely a speculation object with great negative effects on the environment.
by legulere 9y ago
Bitcoin is becoming solely a speculation object with great negative effects on the environment.
- kneel 9y agoAlso the currency of choice in the billion dollar drug market.
- companyhen 9y agoIsn't fiat the largest drug currency by far? I assume in crypto that would be Monero or some other privacy focused coin nowadays.
- kneel 9y agoShapeshift to Monero before or after! Doesn't really matter. Try buying cocaine from your local neighborhood cartel, contrast that to receiving shipments in the mail. World of difference as far as safety/security.
- lern_too_spel 9y agoThe difference is that it is likely that a majority of Bitcoin transactions for goods and services are for drugs, ransoms, and other illegal purposes because it is wildly inefficient to use as a payment system for legitimate transactions, due to high transaction fees, long confirmation times, and low merchant acceptance. The vast majority of transactions in US dollars, on the other hand, are legitimate.
- espitia 9y agoWhat currency is not being used in the drug market? I would love to have a rational debate and hear objective arguments agaisnt bitcoin vs gold that can be applied uniquely to bitcoin or rather that dont apply to both. Scarcity? No intrinsic value? Speculative? Thefts? Used in illicit ways? All these apply to both gold and bitcoin. "Gold has been historically valuable to humans". So have many other rocks, flowers, spices, etc. I am geniuenly interested in seeing why Bitcoin should fail as being a store of value.
- meri_dian 9y agoHow are you going to anonymously trade gold online? Bitcoin gives the anonymity that criminals need.
- colejohnson66 9y agoSo does cash. Should we ban paper money too?
- d4l3k 9y agoThat appears to be the route India is taking.
- dingo_bat 9y agoWow what bullshit. India invalidated a set of currency notes and immediately replaced it with new ones. Is that "banning paper money"? If a government mandates that all petrol cars must be replaced with electric by 2025, does that mean they have "banned cars"?
- espitia 9y agoGold mines are connected to genocide, funding wars and illegal trade. Is my logic wrong in pointing out a 'flaw' in gold when someone else points out a 'flaw' in bitcoin? I think criminals will use any tool in ways that they were not meant to be used. This does not make the tool/subject at hand the culprit.
- patrickg_zill 9y agoThe Federal Reserve is connected to genocide, funding wars, and illegal trade. So what is your point?
- espitia 9y agoThat pointing out an 'issue' that is common in gold/fiat/crytpo is not a great argument against crypto.
- kobeya 9y agoUSD is the currency of choice in the drug market.
- companyhen 9y agoCare to explain the negative effects? Worse than the fraud JP Morgan committed?
- rtpg 9y agoProbably a reference to the massive amount of energy (especially relative to the twins) of all the CPU cycles going into mining
- acomjean 9y agoI haven't studied it, but the general compaint seems to be it takes a fair amount of power to run the computers to generate coins, validate transactions. (enough to power over 1,000,000 american homes, by some accounts[1]) China has some of there mines near hydropower (the cheapest power source). [1] https://blockgeeks.com/bitcoins-energy-consumption/ https://blockgeeks.com/bitcoins-energy-consumption/ https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkvxk3/chinas-biggest-secret-bitcoin-mine https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkvxk3/chinas-big... https://qz.com/1026605/photos-chinas-bitcoin-mines-and-miners/ https://qz.com/1026605/photos-chinas-bitcoin-mines-and-miner...
- matthuggins 9y agoYou should check out NEO.
- zipwitch 9y agoNear Earth Orbit? How feasible is launching a constellation of bitcoin-mining microsats that will run on solar power?
- agorabinary 9y agoClearly, you are oblivious or willfully ignorant of the massive amount of innovative development occurring in the space.
- rtpg 9y agoSerious Q: what are some specific innovations you have seen and are not necessarily well known?
- nosuchthing 9y agoCan you name any services currently available and useful for anything other than speculation?
- thewelder 9y agotokens. [1] [1]-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cba2GA3haYM&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cba2GA3haYM&feature=youtu.be
- jon_richards 9y agoFold let's you buy from common stores like Starbucks with bitcoin. I haven't actually used it, but I hear it's good.
- foepys 9y agoNobody will use anything that includes $3-5 transaction fees to buy something unless it's over $500. That you haven't used it is prototypical. Nobody has used it because traditional alternatives like Visa, Mastercard, or cash are better.
- jon_richards 9y agoI doubt it happens directly on the blockchain, but there are plenty of things built on top of bitcoin that make that work. Its like arguing that no one uses bank accounts for small purchases because wire transfers are too annoying.
- nwah1 9y agoIt started out that way, too.
- beambot 9y agoWorse than mining for gold? We have ample stockpiles above ground...
- 127 9y agoIt's not as much about Bitcoin as it's about capitalism. If you can make profit on using electricity, you will use it. If you can make a profit on building coal power plants, you will build them. Bitcoin is just yet another thing in the pile of products where externalized costs are not included in the price. The greater problem is how we will solve global capitalism in relation to environmental destruction. Nation states that do not have any moral considerations have a competitive edge over those that do.
- patrickg_zill 9y agoNo one cares about your narrow focus... bitcoin mining, just as with gold mining a century ago, drives other technological developments which end up benefiting everyone.