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If you compare the money (resources) spent bitcoin mining and the money (resources) spent operating the world’s central banks, then the costs are similar.
by yunesj 6y ago
If you compare the money (resources) spent bitcoin mining and the money (resources) spent operating the world’s central banks, then the costs are similar.
- notahacker 6y agoThe world's central banks do not use more electricity than Argentina, and they handle a lot more money.
- bingbong70 6y agoHow well does that "money" hold its value?
- notahacker 6y agoMoney is intended to transact with, not for speculation on it increasing purchasing power, which is great, because it can be spent on or invested in things which create value instead. And at a rate of more than 10 transactions per second worldwide!
- bingbong70 6y agoYou are confusing "currency" with "money", there is a difference and it is not insignificant.
- notahacker 6y agoSomeone should tell all the people who've studied numismatics for their entire life! Even the etymology of the word "money" derives from the location of the mint in Rome.
- bingbong70 6y agoBefore the fiat system, national currencies could have been considered closer to "money" because they were actually backed by commodities. Now we have pure currency and all fiat currencies go to ~0 in less than 100 years. USD, GBP, CAD = currency Bitcoin, Gold, Silver = money
- notahacker 6y agoYou'll forgive me for sticking with the definition of money used by all academic experts in the field and the vast majority of colloquial use... Incidentally, Bitcoin is also not a commodity in the general sense of the word (as opposed to the CFTC thinks it should regulate it like other exotic financial instruments sense of the word)
- bingbong70 6y agoSure, just one change... ”Currency is intended to transact with, not for speculation...” Bitcoin is forcing an expansion of the definition of money. A self-regulated financial network backed by tremendous amounts of hardware and electricity is "advanced money". We are at a transition point so I don't expect good labeling/categorization from the shortsighted/incumbents/fiat-boomers (directed at the gatekeepers, not you personally). Side note: What people complaining about electricity consumption don't get is, BTC transfers the uncounterfeitable properties of energy to a money.
- notahacker 6y agoSorry, the English language is distributed consensus based, and so you don't get to torture it into redefining money as "digital tulip bulbs" or condescendingly dismiss people using the term correctly until you have the numbers to mount a 51% attack. :) Side note: what people don't get is that pretending tokens have more exchange value because more energy was expended than the printing of other tokens is just sunk cost fallacy.
- bingbong70 6y ago
- yunesj 6y agoNo, but their budgets are on the order of the annual btc mining rewards.
- PeterisP 6y agoThe main function of the banks is lending and other services, not payments. In a retail bank just a tiny fraction of employees and budget are used for handling payments, it's a necessary piece of infrastructure for every bank but it's not a particularly large part of it.