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>There's no net-value created by doing the 'mining part' - in fact, it's a value-destroying activity You don't understand where cryptocurrencies derive their v

>There's no net-value created by doing the 'mining part' - in fact, it's a value-destroying activity You don't understand where cryptocurrencies derive their value from if you're saying this. Mining is what give cryptocurrencies their legitimacy, it proves that a digital file is scarce (important for information used to account for wealth/scarcity) and second it proves that the payment hasn't been double spent. The traditional financial / political system, these processes are obfuscated or inefficient because you need lawyers, judgers, armed guards, vaults, auditors etc etc to preform the same task: to ensure that FedWire isn't inflating the supply, rolling back a payment.

sopooneo 9y ago
You can completely agree with crypto-currencies having value and also believe "There's no net-value created by doing the 'mining part'". The reason is that whatever you gained in BitCoin value you lost in the ability to sell your electricity.
- DINKDINK 9y ago
  The net value of doing additional mining is that the payment that you accept as a merchant is that much harder to undo by an attacker. If you accept that a bank vault that has one guard is made more secure by adding another guard you must accept that adding miners to a PoW chain makes it more robust against attackers -- this is the value.
alexasmyths 9y ago
I understand exactly what crypto-currencies are. 'Mining' does not give them 'legitimacy', it's just an odd by-product of how some of them are structured. And frankly - that 'mining' consumers power and resources is a total waste. There could very well be other, less wasteful ways accomplish the same thing. Certainly 'Kin' is not 'mined' - they just arbitrarily create and dump them as they please.
- DINKDINK 9y ago
  >'mining' consumers power and resources is a total waste Driving a cash truck to merchants, to pick up cash, to take back to a bank, to be counted by a physical machine, to update a database in a bank server is also a 'total waste'. Just because the waste is hidden in the old financial system doesn't mean it's 'less wasteful' Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas
- hossbeast 9y ago
  If you know of another way to solve the Byzantine generals problem, there's an entire community of researchers waiting to read your paper.
  - alexasmyths 9y ago
    "If you know of another way to solve the Byzantine generals problem" 'Mining' is an arbitrary answer to handing out block-chains. They could give out Bitcoins to whoever solved specific math problems for which 'computing power' doesn't matter. They could give new Bitcoins to completely random people. The 'mining' paradigm is utterly wasteful because it wastes resources for no reason. The could have issued a 'big block' and than have been 'done with it' - no new Bitcoins. The level of religious support for this stuff is hilarious.
    - ErikDub 9y ago
      The purpose of Mining is not to hand out new coins, this is only done to incentivise mining. The real reason behind mining is to secure the transactions. Mining prevents people from double spending their coins.
    - harwoodleon 9y ago
      I'm glad you have outed this rather complex multi billion dollar industry with thousands of extremely competent programmers. > 'Mining' is an arbitrary answer to handing out block-chains. No it's not there are many ways to mine a coin and reach consensus, Proof of Work has been the most sensible one - as staking electricity is fundamental and universal. > They could give out Bitcoins to whoever solved specific math problems for which 'computing power' doesn't matter. They? > The 'mining' paradigm is utterly wasteful because it wastes resources for no reason. Ethereum uses a mining algo to process Smart Contracts. Other currencies like sia, use mining to process decentralised storage. Utterly wasteful is an overstatement. There are plans to move Ethereum to Proof of Stake where mining coins will become incredibly difficult and uneconomic and will reduce the power consumption problem. > The level of religious support for this stuff is hilarious. Your poor understanding of the topic made me chuckle

sopooneo 9y ago

You can completely agree with crypto-currencies having value and also believe "There's no net-value created by doing the 'mining part'". The reason is that whatever you gained in BitCoin value you lost in the ability to sell your electricity.

DINKDINK 9y ago
The net value of doing additional mining is that the payment that you accept as a merchant is that much harder to undo by an attacker. If you accept that a bank vault that has one guard is made more secure by adding another guard you must accept that adding miners to a PoW chain makes it more robust against attackers -- this is the value.

alexasmyths 9y ago

I understand exactly what crypto-currencies are. 'Mining' does not give them 'legitimacy', it's just an odd by-product of how some of them are structured. And frankly - that 'mining' consumers power and resources is a total waste. There could very well be other, less wasteful ways accomplish the same thing. Certainly 'Kin' is not 'mined' - they just arbitrarily create and dump them as they please.

DINKDINK 9y ago
>'mining' consumers power and resources is a total waste Driving a cash truck to merchants, to pick up cash, to take back to a bank, to be counted by a physical machine, to update a database in a bank server is also a 'total waste'. Just because the waste is hidden in the old financial system doesn't mean it's 'less wasteful' Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas
hossbeast 9y ago
If you know of another way to solve the Byzantine generals problem, there's an entire community of researchers waiting to read your paper.
- alexasmyths 9y ago
  "If you know of another way to solve the Byzantine generals problem" 'Mining' is an arbitrary answer to handing out block-chains. They could give out Bitcoins to whoever solved specific math problems for which 'computing power' doesn't matter. They could give new Bitcoins to completely random people. The 'mining' paradigm is utterly wasteful because it wastes resources for no reason. The could have issued a 'big block' and than have been 'done with it' - no new Bitcoins. The level of religious support for this stuff is hilarious.
  - ErikDub 9y ago
    The purpose of Mining is not to hand out new coins, this is only done to incentivise mining. The real reason behind mining is to secure the transactions. Mining prevents people from double spending their coins.
  - harwoodleon 9y ago
    I'm glad you have outed this rather complex multi billion dollar industry with thousands of extremely competent programmers. > 'Mining' is an arbitrary answer to handing out block-chains. No it's not there are many ways to mine a coin and reach consensus, Proof of Work has been the most sensible one - as staking electricity is fundamental and universal. > They could give out Bitcoins to whoever solved specific math problems for which 'computing power' doesn't matter. They? > The 'mining' paradigm is utterly wasteful because it wastes resources for no reason. Ethereum uses a mining algo to process Smart Contracts. Other currencies like sia, use mining to process decentralised storage. Utterly wasteful is an overstatement. There are plans to move Ethereum to Proof of Stake where mining coins will become incredibly difficult and uneconomic and will reduce the power consumption problem. > The level of religious support for this stuff is hilarious. Your poor understanding of the topic made me chuckle