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I have a solution to the energy consumption problem. Instead of banning Bitcoin completely, just make it illegal for individuals to run cryptocurrency nodes or

I have a solution to the energy consumption problem. Instead of banning Bitcoin completely, just make it illegal for individuals to run cryptocurrency nodes or perform mining operations. In it's place, each government can then run their own cluster of nodes for the general public to use as a cryptocurrency. This way, the general population has access to cryptocurrency, but government can monitor and control all of the transactions that take place to ensure that no illegal activity arises. In addition, governments could also control the issuance of private and public keys, which means that funds can be easily confiscated in the event of fraudulent behaviour. Of course, the main issue with this setup is that the nodes will be centralized, and therefore are at a greater risk of physical attack. This can be solved through physical force, which will consume energy in itself, but will be far more efficient than using a globally distributed proof-of-work mechanism for protecting the transaction history of the currency. Furthermore, in the event that a nation state scale attack takes place to try and undermine the transaction history of the government-run nodes, the force required to protect these ledgers can be scaled up to match it (e.g. war). However, I believe this to be an unlikely scenario, and so the overall cost involved with protecting the cryptocurrency would be less than what is currently consumed by proof-of-work. In short; instead of using electrical energy to protect the integrity of the currency, we use physical force instead (which will be far more energy-efficient). To me, this quite clearly solves the energy consumption, without having to perform an outright ban on the technology. This way, everyone benefits.

djschnei 6y ago
> but government can monitor and control all of the transactions that take place to ensure that no illegal activity arises. I don't mean any disrespect when I say this, but when I read comments like, after the initial shock subsides, there is always a realization that we all have such widely varying and disconnected worldviews that I simply don't understand how mass governance could every work without eventually succumbing to violent conflict... Not trying to make any comment on the underlying merit of either worldview, just that it's like we live in completely different realities... It's very depressing, to be completely honest.
- RhodoGSA 6y ago
  The saving grace to human society's have been the ability to rebel against a despotic government. Recently, within the last generation or two, we've lost that ability. Government is an amorphous entity that will always attempt to gain more power and more control. Separating the government from financial and economic power might be a hurdle that a technologically advanced society must overcome in order to prosper and not devolve into some 1984 distopia. Crypto might be our saving grace as opposed to our evil overlord that the article claims it to be.
biztos 6y ago
If you're going to trust the government to validate the blockchain then you don't need any proof of work anymore. You just need proof of Government: depending on the government, that might be a trillion-dollar SQL database built by Palantir, or it might be a physical stamp in red ink on a dot-matrix printout of every newly verified block.

djschnei 6y ago

> but government can monitor and control all of the transactions that take place to ensure that no illegal activity arises. I don't mean any disrespect when I say this, but when I read comments like, after the initial shock subsides, there is always a realization that we all have such widely varying and disconnected worldviews that I simply don't understand how mass governance could every work without eventually succumbing to violent conflict... Not trying to make any comment on the underlying merit of either worldview, just that it's like we live in completely different realities... It's very depressing, to be completely honest.

RhodoGSA 6y ago
The saving grace to human society's have been the ability to rebel against a despotic government. Recently, within the last generation or two, we've lost that ability. Government is an amorphous entity that will always attempt to gain more power and more control. Separating the government from financial and economic power might be a hurdle that a technologically advanced society must overcome in order to prosper and not devolve into some 1984 distopia. Crypto might be our saving grace as opposed to our evil overlord that the article claims it to be.

biztos 6y ago

If you're going to trust the government to validate the blockchain then you don't need any proof of work anymore. You just need proof of Government: depending on the government, that might be a trillion-dollar SQL database built by Palantir, or it might be a physical stamp in red ink on a dot-matrix printout of every newly verified block.