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The mind boggles at the absurdity of this comparison. The amount of social good, emergency preparedness, advancement of technology and just plain fun is what
by wglb 6y ago
The mind boggles at the absurdity of this comparison.
The amount of social good, emergency preparedness, advancement of technology and just plain fun is what ham radio is about. Bouncing signals off the moon, communicating across the world with just 10 watts--these are common activities.
Can you compare the energy consumption of a ham radio conversation with the amount of energy bitcoin requires to buy a pizza? Many orders of magnitude.
Insofar as being old and clunky, digital modes such as FT8, FT4, Olivia and associated technology is far from clunky.
If there is a disaster that affects the financial system, bitcoin is not going to help--it will be just as paralyzed as the rest of it.
One is expensive fantasy, the other has an ongoing practical use with social benefit.
- zucker42 6y agoNot saying there aren't big problems with Bitcoin, but I think that's it something more than an expensive fantasy. I recently bought a service with Bitcoin for a 10% discount, which seems to suggest it helps that company process payments with lower cost. The engima with cryptocurrencies is that the zealots seem to significantly overvaul it while some outsiders seem to undervalue it. And I think that's what the point of this article is: that Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies can be useful without replacing the USD.