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https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-04-21/you-can-sell-the-trees-you-don-t-cut https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-04-21/you-ca... "The
by kgwgk 5y ago
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-04-21/you-can-sell-the-trees-you-don-t-cut https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-04-21/you-ca...
"The other reason to love this story is that it is about getting paid not to do things. That is always complicated. If you are paid to do things, it is relatively easy to measure how much you did and how much you should get paid. If I want you to cut down trees for my sawmill, we might agree on a price of $5 per tree. You will cut down the trees and deliver them to me, and I will count them. If you deliver 100 trees then I’ll pay you $500.
"But if I want you not to cut down trees for my carbon capture program, it is harder to measure how many trees you didn’t cut down. Just sitting here right now, typing this column on my computer, I have cut down zero trees,[1] which means in theory that there are absolutely billions of trees that I have not cut down. Where is my check? A landowner might have planned to cut down only a few trees this year, but she will have incentives to say “I was planning to cut down all my trees,” in order to get paid for not cutting down all of them. She might have trees that are impossibly un-economic to cut down, but it’s easy enough for her not to cut them down.
"Similarly, if I agree to buy 100 trees from you, and you sell me the trees, you can’t sell them to anyone else: I have the trees. If I agree to pay you not to cut down 100 trees, though, what’s to stop you from getting paid by someone else not to cut down the same trees? The trees stay there; you can sell the concept of them staying there as many times as you like."
- pintxo 5y agoI have to - don’t do it - say it: put your trees on a NFT blockchain - he said it, sorry!!1!
- gibspaulding 5y agoSeems reasonable - We have proof of work, proof of stake, proof of storage. Why not proof of trees!
- isaacimagine 5y agoWe could have proof of air too! https://www.gwern.net/CO2-Coin https://www.gwern.net/CO2-Coin
- ineedasername 5y agoAlthough if it's trees, then technically each individual piece of paper might be a single Satoshi.
- leogiertz 5y agoIt's actually a quite good idea: https://www.single.earth https://www.single.earth
- Retric 5y agoIt’s silly specifically because there are other options meaning you still need to verify a tree not cut down on this block chain hasn’t also been not cut down in some other agreement. Blockchains therefore can’t actually prevent a double spend as it were.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 5y agoAll we have to do is pass a law mandating that my blockchain is the only one allowed to track tree cutting. I’m very generous, so I host it for free and only charge a nominal fee per transaction. If you want to reduce the number of trees chopped, I can always raise the fee for that later.
- thaumasiotes 5y agoHeck, put them on TWO blockchains. ;D
- cortesoft 5y agoMatt Levine is the best
- xkcd-sucks 5y ago>“His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbours sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” he counselled one and all, and everyone said “Amen.” -- Joseph Heller, Catch-22
- jbc1 5y agoThanks a lot. Now I've got to read Catch 22 again for the nth whatever time. Highly recommend this book to any and all people reading this btw. It's a ride you go on as much as a story you read.
- quickthrowman 5y ago“ The Lord gave us good farmers two strong hands so that we could take as much as we could grab with both of them” -Major Major Major Major’s Father