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Looks like you're being downvoted by all of the people that refuse to own up to their own hypocrisy over this issue. You're exactly correct, of course. China

Looks like you're being downvoted by all of the people that refuse to own up to their own hypocrisy over this issue. You're exactly correct, of course. China manufactures the vast majority of this equipment, and China runs on coal.

oblio 5y ago
It's not hypocrisy. We need computers for a lot of solid, real life uses. We don't need cryptocurrencies for almost anything being peddled. They're supposed to be decentralized, but you can't really use them that way in 99% of situations. They're supposed to be currencies and instead they're vehicles for speculation. Etc. I think their slogan should be: "You don't really need cryptocurrencies for that".
- politician 5y ago
  PoW crypocurrencies are global communications systems that offer nonrepudiation, instant settlement, and finality; a subset additionally offer privacy. It's valuable to people who need those guarantees. There are speculators in every market.
  - u2c4m6 5y ago
    What crypto currency offers privacy?
    - politician 5y ago
      Monero
  - oblio 5y ago
    > There are speculators in every market. For crypto speculation is <<the market>>.
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  I'll be the first to admit that bitcoin failed to achieve everything it was supposed to. However, criticizing cryptocurrency as a whole over energy usage of all things is hypocrisy. It's not even 1% of global energy consumption. The world is being destroyed, but not by this.
  - honkycat 5y ago
    0.55% of energy consumption[0] is not a trivial amount of energy. 0: https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-much-energy-does-bitcoin-actually-consume https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-much-energy-does-bitcoin-actuall...
    - matheusmoreira 5y ago
      Yeah, but in the grand scheme of things it's nothing. A nuisance at best. If people really are worried about climate change, they need to stop trading with China, regulate big oil, invest in public infrastructure and transportation, heavily incentivize development and usage of clean energy sources, etc. Bitcoin is just a convenient distraction from the real problems. Regulating it will contribute virtually nothing to this cause. At this point in time, there is no reason to care about this. Maybe we start caring if some insane development happens and BTC suddenly starts representing 10-20% of our energy consumption. Until then, there are bigger problems to worry about.
      - politician 5y ago
        Indeed. If folks weren't just virtue signaling about climate change, then we could get on with tiling a third of the State of New Mexico with solar panels to power the North American hemisphere. We already have the technology and the land area.
    - politician 5y ago
      If that energy were produced by solar, then it would require 332 km^2 of 290W 60-cell solar panels which is roughly the size of downtown Austin, TX. The ability to tile a land area the size of a smaller American city with relatively bad solar panels to power half a percent of the world's energy usage is pretty amazing.

oblio 5y ago

It's not hypocrisy. We need computers for a lot of solid, real life uses. We don't need cryptocurrencies for almost anything being peddled. They're supposed to be decentralized, but you can't really use them that way in 99% of situations. They're supposed to be currencies and instead they're vehicles for speculation. Etc. I think their slogan should be: "You don't really need cryptocurrencies for that".

politician 5y ago
PoW crypocurrencies are global communications systems that offer nonrepudiation, instant settlement, and finality; a subset additionally offer privacy. It's valuable to people who need those guarantees. There are speculators in every market.
- u2c4m6 5y ago
  What crypto currency offers privacy?
  - politician 5y ago
    Monero
- oblio 5y ago
  > There are speculators in every market. For crypto speculation is <<the market>>.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
I'll be the first to admit that bitcoin failed to achieve everything it was supposed to. However, criticizing cryptocurrency as a whole over energy usage of all things is hypocrisy. It's not even 1% of global energy consumption. The world is being destroyed, but not by this.
- honkycat 5y ago
  0.55% of energy consumption[0] is not a trivial amount of energy. 0: https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-much-energy-does-bitcoin-actually-consume https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-much-energy-does-bitcoin-actuall...
  - matheusmoreira 5y ago
    Yeah, but in the grand scheme of things it's nothing. A nuisance at best. If people really are worried about climate change, they need to stop trading with China, regulate big oil, invest in public infrastructure and transportation, heavily incentivize development and usage of clean energy sources, etc. Bitcoin is just a convenient distraction from the real problems. Regulating it will contribute virtually nothing to this cause. At this point in time, there is no reason to care about this. Maybe we start caring if some insane development happens and BTC suddenly starts representing 10-20% of our energy consumption. Until then, there are bigger problems to worry about.
    - politician 5y ago
      Indeed. If folks weren't just virtue signaling about climate change, then we could get on with tiling a third of the State of New Mexico with solar panels to power the North American hemisphere. We already have the technology and the land area.
  - politician 5y ago
    If that energy were produced by solar, then it would require 332 km^2 of 290W 60-cell solar panels which is roughly the size of downtown Austin, TX. The ability to tile a land area the size of a smaller American city with relatively bad solar panels to power half a percent of the world's energy usage is pretty amazing.