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Bitcoin alone emits the equivalent of almost 2% of the aggregate greenhouse emissions from the military and defense worldwide? Holy shit!

jonplackett 5y ago
Yeah the 'less than' in the headline is wilfully misleading.
- danboarder 5y ago
  Correct, well the author makes clear it's a click-bait title but clarifies the idea being that in comparing bitcoin to USD he includes the government backing the USD, ultimately the US armed forces and current military industrial complex backing it's use. Interesting rhetorical exercise but not sure it's making the point he was hoping for.
IMTDb 5y ago
How this guy think he is able to spin this in any kind of "positive" fashion is beyond me. He just made the math and proved how completely crazy bitcoin is from an energy consumption POV and somehow tries to flip the story
- 1MachineElf 5y ago
  Have you thought about how abolishing national currencies would remove the need for a military industrial complex?
  - IMTDb 5y ago
    No, because at the currency level, the pandemic has proven that the government ability to inject cash in the economy when needed through stimulus checks or temporary unemployed benefits is absolutely essential. At the industrial level, I am not sure of the impact of crypto. You'll still need steel to build bridges wether you pay using gold, oil, paper or crypto. At the military level: "bitcoin" does not sound like a very goos shield vs an AK-47 (nor is euro, usd or any currecny but none pretend to be)
  - beaconstudios 5y ago
    Would it? My understanding is that (vastly oversimplified) both currencies and war are driven by scarcity, and that using a digital currency would not fix scarcity as a concept.
  - rspeele 5y ago
    Have you? Currency is just an abstraction layer over "stuff". Land, buildings, cars, food, whatever. If some other country has a bigger, meaner military and can roll over you and take your stuff, it doesn't really matter how many virtual coins you have. Your coins are only worth what they can buy, and buying something is meaningless if you can't defend it. The military and by extension the military industry aren't going away unless we end up in a truly magical post-scarcity society where nobody has a reason to take stuff from anybody else, because they can get anything they desire materialized out of thin air for free. Which would also eliminate the purpose of having currencies.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- estaseuropano 5y ago
  Great and lwta abolish schools, libraries and public streets while we're at it. The whole crypto debate is completely ignorant that the monetary economy is the lifeblood of all our societal contracts. If the winner-take-all world of crypto wins all we get is a dystopian nightmare.

jonplackett 5y ago

Yeah the 'less than' in the headline is wilfully misleading.

danboarder 5y ago
Correct, well the author makes clear it's a click-bait title but clarifies the idea being that in comparing bitcoin to USD he includes the government backing the USD, ultimately the US armed forces and current military industrial complex backing it's use. Interesting rhetorical exercise but not sure it's making the point he was hoping for.

IMTDb 5y ago

How this guy think he is able to spin this in any kind of "positive" fashion is beyond me. He just made the math and proved how completely crazy bitcoin is from an energy consumption POV and somehow tries to flip the story

1MachineElf 5y ago
Have you thought about how abolishing national currencies would remove the need for a military industrial complex?
- IMTDb 5y ago
  No, because at the currency level, the pandemic has proven that the government ability to inject cash in the economy when needed through stimulus checks or temporary unemployed benefits is absolutely essential. At the industrial level, I am not sure of the impact of crypto. You'll still need steel to build bridges wether you pay using gold, oil, paper or crypto. At the military level: "bitcoin" does not sound like a very goos shield vs an AK-47 (nor is euro, usd or any currecny but none pretend to be)
- beaconstudios 5y ago
  Would it? My understanding is that (vastly oversimplified) both currencies and war are driven by scarcity, and that using a digital currency would not fix scarcity as a concept.
- rspeele 5y ago
  Have you? Currency is just an abstraction layer over "stuff". Land, buildings, cars, food, whatever. If some other country has a bigger, meaner military and can roll over you and take your stuff, it doesn't really matter how many virtual coins you have. Your coins are only worth what they can buy, and buying something is meaningless if you can't defend it. The military and by extension the military industry aren't going away unless we end up in a truly magical post-scarcity society where nobody has a reason to take stuff from anybody else, because they can get anything they desire materialized out of thin air for free. Which would also eliminate the purpose of having currencies.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
estaseuropano 5y ago
Great and lwta abolish schools, libraries and public streets while we're at it. The whole crypto debate is completely ignorant that the monetary economy is the lifeblood of all our societal contracts. If the winner-take-all world of crypto wins all we get is a dystopian nightmare.