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This is an excellent take on why the Grossman's idea is plainly idiotic [0]. You don't get more bitcoin for more electricity, you just get more security. The sy
by Dzugaru 6y ago
This is an excellent take on why the Grossman's idea is plainly idiotic [0]. You don't get more bitcoin for more electricity, you just get more security. The system itself can reach a state when you need 51% of whole planet electricity and computation devices locked into it to be perfectly secure. Thats frankly scary.
[0] https://elad-verbin.medium.com/bitcoin-is-not-a-battery-it-is-a-sink-852db9669f20 https://elad-verbin.medium.com/bitcoin-is-not-a-battery-it-i...
- PragmaticPulp 6y ago> You don't get more bitcoin for more electricity, you just get more security. Specifically, more security for the next block, only. Once that block is mined, the process starts all over again for the next block. The energy usage reset button is pressed as soon as each block is mined. No energy is "stored".
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y agoBitcoin itself is energy or can be converted into energy. If I can buy wood to burn for energy with Bitcoin, I am converting mined Bitcoin into energy.
- bathtub365 6y agoIf I have Bitcoin how do I convert it into energy to power something else?
- danboarder 6y agoBy purchasing electricity with Bitcoin.
- ForHackernews 6y agoBy this logic, dollar bills make a much better "battery".
- vntok 6y agoNot really because the Dollar bills battery keeps discharging at the inflation rate.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y agoRight, because BTC value never goes down.
- bingbong70 6y agoNGU - "Number Go Up" technology is one of Bitcoin's most interesting & unique attributes. Few here understand.
- vletal 6y ago> Few here understand. Sounds like a catch phrase from an "alternative" news site or a thing a member of a religious cult would say.
- wavefunction 6y agoI can at least light a dollar on fire for some small measure of warmth!
- danboarder 6y agoPerhaps an equally good "battery", this is the principal of fungibility as a currency. Given the built-in halving structure of bitcoin, in the long run bitcoin may "store" or buy more electricity relative to the dollar that has inflationary pressure (USD tends to lose 3%/yr in real value due to inflation).
- Retric 6y agoMoney doesn’t buy electricity in a blackout. That’s the difference between an abstraction and the underlying reality.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y agoIt does actually, thousands in Texas had no electricity while I did. Cost me 1/5 of a Bitcoin.
- Retric 6y agoI think you misunderstood. I had electricity just fine during the storm due to the wonders of working infrastructure and thus not being in a blackout. But, for those without power due to a blackout, you can’t simply spend money and instantly turn the lights back on. You can either have already spent money to have backup power, or you have a problem. It’s like breathing, if your drowning spending money to be able to breath in 2 hours is useless you need air now. Which is why electric grid operators need infrastructure not money to avoid causing blackouts.
- selectodude 6y agoDid your electricity provider accept Bitcoin?
- bingbong70 6y agoWhoever sells generators in an outage definitely will accept your bitcoin pre/post conversion.
- lottin 6y agoWhat if I buy gold with it? Does it mean I have turned electricity into gold?
- MauranKilom 6y agoThen Bitcoin stores no energy whatsoever. If I purchase the same amount of electricity with $, or with gold, or with seashells instead of Bitcoin, there will be no difference on the side of the electricity supplier. Aside from, of course, Bitcoin potentially affecting electricity prices.
- africanboy 6y agoin this scenario am I a battery because I can make my own wood? and is the tree I am cutting a battery too? wouldn't it be easier (and more sustainable) then to plant trees than mine bitcoins?
- user-the-name 6y agoIt's not. This statement is just plain dumb.
- UncleMeat 6y agoBecause I can buy BTC with dollars, dollars are bitcoins! Because I can buy fiat currency with BTC, BTC is a fiat currency!
- HenryBemis 6y agoIdiotic all the way. If aluminum can be perceived as a battery, then everything else can be. "Poop as a Battery (PaaB)" (am I the first to use this?)(no I won't DDG it). In that sense, Bill Gatess "Reinvented Toilet" does kinda the same. People pee and poop, sewage is processed and is converted to clean water and can produce energy [0]. Thus PaaB(!?) [0]: https://www.elitereaders.com/waterless-toilet-system-generates-energy-from-human-wastes/ https://www.elitereaders.com/waterless-toilet-system-generat...
- thatcat 6y agoPoop can be a microbial power source at waste treatment plants with the right tech. Unlike btc it pulls power from waste streams and makes it available.
- africanboy 6y agothe obvious conclusion then is that even poo is more useful than bitcoins.
- purple_ferret 6y agoYes, to me this response seems intuitive if you know anything about bitcoin and PoW blockchains. The original article seems based on misconceptions. I find it strange that even people at a prominent firm like Union Square Ventures are perpetuating such misconceptions.
- acdha 6y ago> I find it strange that even people at a prominent firm like Union Square Ventures are perpetuating such misconceptions. Remember, their goal is to make money. As we’ve seen over and over again, there’s a strong financial interest in doing whatever is needed to make their holdings profitable and most will say anything short of legally actionable misrepresentations.
- Applejinx 6y agoI don't think it's a bit strange if they're heavily invested in Bitcoin. You may be assuming it's a good-faith argument.