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That's an interesting question. Crypto mining wants to do more and more cycles, faster and faster, so of course they need chips from the newest processes. But

That's an interesting question. Crypto mining wants to do more and more cycles, faster and faster, so of course they need chips from the newest processes. But in reality I don't think "blocking" is possible now. That ship has sailed (feel free to use your own cliche here). There are now exchange listed companies, eg Coinbase, that deal in crypto. There are mutual funds that deal in crypto. Tesla owns a bunch of crypto :) A lot of older ICs, eg automotive, don't need leading edge fabs, and those other fabs also are seeing record demand.

ArkanExplorer 5y ago
But what does eg. Germany, Korea, Japan have to gain from Crypto activity? What does humanity have to gain generally, with an increasing share of our energy and chip manufacturing output going towards an essentially pointless activity? Why not more individual action, like India has taken? Much of the wealth seems to be funneled into the USA, where many of the earliest entrants and major Crypto traders are located.
- kelp 5y ago
  It seems to be a net negative to society to me. One of those cases where a small group gets rich, while everyone else pays the externalities.
- m4rtink 5y ago
  Lot of the mining infrastructure could quite easily be converted to distributed computing resources doing useful work. Could be a nice alternative to the few monopolistic public clouds with arbitrary rules and one could even use the crypto stuff to pay for using the resources.
- copenocoiner 5y ago
  >What does humanity have to gain generally, with an increasing share of our energy and chip manufacturing output going towards an essentially pointless activity? Let us ban all internet chat. People can use smoke signals and paper mail instead. (Aside, the latency differential between internet messaging and paper mail is extremely similar to the differential between legacy settlement technology and blockchain-based.) Let us ban video games. Board games worked for thousands of years. Let us ban all video streaming. Let people use local video stores instead of all this high energy information broadcasting. You ask this question from ignorance. You assume the new technology is pointless, when in fact it represents a sea change in finance, contracts, and international order. There are use cases and financial instruments that are impossible with legacy technology. To call it pointless is simply wrong. Anyone from any country with the ability to broadcast and receive hash strings can participate, this is not an exclusive endeavor.

ArkanExplorer 5y ago

But what does eg. Germany, Korea, Japan have to gain from Crypto activity? What does humanity have to gain generally, with an increasing share of our energy and chip manufacturing output going towards an essentially pointless activity? Why not more individual action, like India has taken? Much of the wealth seems to be funneled into the USA, where many of the earliest entrants and major Crypto traders are located.

kelp 5y ago
It seems to be a net negative to society to me. One of those cases where a small group gets rich, while everyone else pays the externalities.
m4rtink 5y ago
Lot of the mining infrastructure could quite easily be converted to distributed computing resources doing useful work. Could be a nice alternative to the few monopolistic public clouds with arbitrary rules and one could even use the crypto stuff to pay for using the resources.
copenocoiner 5y ago
>What does humanity have to gain generally, with an increasing share of our energy and chip manufacturing output going towards an essentially pointless activity? Let us ban all internet chat. People can use smoke signals and paper mail instead. (Aside, the latency differential between internet messaging and paper mail is extremely similar to the differential between legacy settlement technology and blockchain-based.) Let us ban video games. Board games worked for thousands of years. Let us ban all video streaming. Let people use local video stores instead of all this high energy information broadcasting. You ask this question from ignorance. You assume the new technology is pointless, when in fact it represents a sea change in finance, contracts, and international order. There are use cases and financial instruments that are impossible with legacy technology. To call it pointless is simply wrong. Anyone from any country with the ability to broadcast and receive hash strings can participate, this is not an exclusive endeavor.