6 ms·

Well it probably isn't going to go negative. Probably.

everdev 9y ago
New business idea: BitDump - the easiest place to store your negatively valued bitcoins.
IntronExon 9y ago
Although if you take into account the cost in electricity that has been turned into heat, that does kind of represent s massive negative. That sacrifice of power is only worth it (sort of) if Bitcoin retains more value than the electricity was worth. Of course if cryptocurrency really does become worthwhile as a currency, it could be an acceptable price to pay. How many people think that cryptocurrency has a real future worth that expenditure? I would guess fewer everyday, but I could be very wrong.
zerostar07 9y ago
it can be hacked or compromised. at which point it becomes imaginary
- tomcooks 9y ago
  How exactly would you hack or compromise bitcoin?
  - arkona 9y ago
    Find pre-image of a sha-256 hash
  - 0wing 9y ago
    While the cryptography might be resilient [1], in the real world people have been getting their bitcoins hacked and stolen very very commonly. The ecosystem has some serious issues to solve for it to be ready for an everyday user. [1] https://lbc.cryptoguru.org/about https://lbc.cryptoguru.org/about
  - zerostar07 9y ago
    if i knew how, you would know it by now. but you can't prove it's unhackable either
  - mcintyre1994 9y ago
    Owning >51% of the mining power for a sustained period would make it impossible to trust and presumably eventually wipe it out. The hashing power is frequently compared to small states, so a large state could presumably put together enough hashing power to sustain such an attack.
bb88 9y ago
If owning bitcoin were suddenly illegal, then people might be giving you money to take their bitcoin....
0wing 9y ago
Well, mining Bitcoins is a net negative of wasted energy. Every bit of computer power beyond the minimum threshold of efficiency needed to operate the transactions and database is a net loss. Peak efficiency of the Bitcoin mining network would be about 3-10 basic desktop computers. Instead Satoshi Nakomoto's Proof of Work will waste more and more energy with nothing to show as time goes on.
- X6S1x6Okd1st 9y ago
  Do you have a proposal for a cryptocurrency without proof of work?

New business idea: BitDump - the easiest place to store your negatively valued bitcoins.

Although if you take into account the cost in electricity that has been turned into heat, that does kind of represent s massive negative. That sacrifice of power is only worth it (sort of) if Bitcoin retains more value than the electricity was worth. Of course if cryptocurrency really does become worthwhile as a currency, it could be an acceptable price to pay. How many people think that cryptocurrency has a real future worth that expenditure? I would guess fewer everyday, but I could be very wrong.

zerostar07 9y ago

it can be hacked or compromised. at which point it becomes imaginary

tomcooks 9y ago
How exactly would you hack or compromise bitcoin?
- arkona 9y ago
  Find pre-image of a sha-256 hash
- 0wing 9y ago
  While the cryptography might be resilient [1], in the real world people have been getting their bitcoins hacked and stolen very very commonly. The ecosystem has some serious issues to solve for it to be ready for an everyday user. [1] https://lbc.cryptoguru.org/about https://lbc.cryptoguru.org/about
- zerostar07 9y ago
  if i knew how, you would know it by now. but you can't prove it's unhackable either
- mcintyre1994 9y ago
  Owning >51% of the mining power for a sustained period would make it impossible to trust and presumably eventually wipe it out. The hashing power is frequently compared to small states, so a large state could presumably put together enough hashing power to sustain such an attack.

bb88 9y ago

If owning bitcoin were suddenly illegal, then people might be giving you money to take their bitcoin....

0wing 9y ago

Well, mining Bitcoins is a net negative of wasted energy. Every bit of computer power beyond the minimum threshold of efficiency needed to operate the transactions and database is a net loss. Peak efficiency of the Bitcoin mining network would be about 3-10 basic desktop computers. Instead Satoshi Nakomoto's Proof of Work will waste more and more energy with nothing to show as time goes on.

X6S1x6Okd1st 9y ago
Do you have a proposal for a cryptocurrency without proof of work?