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When the alternative is simply just using Proof of Stake and lowering the energy consumption by an estimated 99%, yes, we can be judgmental of how others use en
by Shoue 6y ago
When the alternative is simply just using Proof of Stake and lowering the energy consumption by an estimated 99%, yes, we can be judgmental of how others use energy in this specific case. It's not Bitcoin/PoW or no cryptocurrencies at all, that's a false dichotomy, if that's what you're implying.
- Nursie 6y agoGood luck with that. The bitcoin core folks can't even agree to change blocksizes to increase transaction throughput. Switching to PoS is highly unlikely.
- DennisP 6y agoTrue, but the rest of us can switch blockchains.
- Nursie 6y agoGood luck with that too.
- deeeeplearning 6y agoEther is the number 2 coin and has been steadily gaining on Btc. Do you think everyone uses Btc exclusively?
- Nursie 6y agoNo, but I don't think ether uses PoS either (though I know they've been trying to move to it for years). Further, whether or not some folks move to ethereum is more or less irrelevant to whether BTC carries on doing what it's doing. The problem is not individuals making the switch, it's getting enough people to switch in order to reduce the energy footprint of BTC.
- DennisP 6y agoThey've been trying for years but now it's been running smoothly in production for several months. They plan a few minor tweaks, then after watching it some more they'll migrate the legacy chain to it. That's a fairly simple software engineering task, rather than the difficult research challenge that PoS has been until recently. The other big change on the way is a massive increase in scalability, which I'm hoping will help move the market in a more sustainable direction.
- bcheung 6y agoIt's already being done. There is a ton of financial transactions in the DeFi space happening on Ethereum right now and other protocols on other chains are rapidly being developed and rolled out.
- Nursie 6y agoI'm not saying ether is a ghost town, I'm saying good luck making bitcoin an irrelevance to the point its energy use drops.
- onyb 6y agoPoS lacks fairness. To participate in PoS, you need an existing stash of coins, which is inaccessible for many individuals from countries where cryptocurrencies are outlawed. Not forgetting to mention that participation in consensus would indirectly require going through KYC. PoW, on the other hand, is akin to buying Bitcoin with electricity - a borderless natural resource.
- bccdee 6y ago> a borderless natural resource. Wow, I never knew ASICs grew on trees.
- mcosta 6y agoYou pay electicity with fiat money.
- vntok 6y agoSolar panels are a thing. Depending on the region you are setting them up in, a couple dozen panels and a battery could reliably power an ASIC 24/7. Hydro, wind are other possibilities.
- CRConrad 6y ago“You don't need to buy electricity, you can just build your own power plant!” Sure. You can easily create your own conventional fiat currency too, you just need to set up your own nation.
- kybernetikos 6y ago> PoS lacks fairness. I dislike the way that cryptocurrencies have managed their initial allocations, but it's way better than the way that fiat currencies have managed their initial allocations (usually encoding generations of violence, rascism and oppression). To 'participate' in PoS (by which you mean mining a block I suppose), you can buy all the stake you need from other people, just like if you want to 'participate' in stock ownership, or land ownership or ownership of nearly anything else in the world. > PoW, on the other hand, is akin to buying Bitcoin with electricity - a borderless natural resource. Well.... if you try to mine BTC these days with a standard computer on a standard electricity tarif, you're not going to have a fun time. Given the fact that to reasonably 'participate' in PoS you need only the kind of computer you already have and an easily acquired stake, while to reasonably 'participate' in many forms of PoW you need unusual, expensive custom hardware and cheap electricity, I'm not at all convinced that PoW has anything better to say about 'fairness'.