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For all your trivia recitations you failed on a crucial point. > POW being a race to burn as much (mostly) coal for the benefit of very few. POW is a consensu

For all your trivia recitations you failed on a crucial point. > POW being a race to burn as much (mostly) coal for the benefit of very few. POW is a consensus mechanism that secures the entire Bitcoin network. At times that has represented over one trillion USD worth of value. The benefit of Bitcoin's consensus is to all the money locked up in it, without it, or even if the profit to hack Bitcoin were only slightly marginal, the whole thing would fall apart, almost one trillion in value. It is not for the very few that consensus mechanisms reward, it is for the whole network (in the ideal case). So in a way, when Bitcoin is driven to astronomical prices, and the incentive to break into it becomes irresistible to the most powerful people in the world yet they still cannot accomplish it, it does validate the technology.

delegate 5y ago
The trillion dollars is a dream, it's not real.. Fugazzi. Once the price starts falling, the scared 'investors' will get rid of it at any price to reduce loss. The network won't handle the load, so the price will drop even more. It happened before with BTC, where the 'billions' evaporated in hours, it will happen to the 'trillions'.
- _Algernon_ 5y ago
  And the price will go up again after a great buying opportunity for the people who see the value of the technology. As has happened before.
  - lottin 5y ago
    What value do you think people see in Dogecoin, for example?
    - mattwilsonn888 5y ago
      Funnily enough Dogecoin started as something completely antithetical to all the things about web3 'culture' HN hates the most. It was something to make fun of the venture capitalists wowing novices with buzzwords to part them from their money. I would say its now obviously overvalued considering the amount of money which flows there rather than to projects making real innovations. But then again, how do price a meme anyways?
    - _Algernon_ 5y ago
      Value resides where people believe it resides, and if 2021 has shown one thing, it is that the power of memes is practically infinite. That being said, I don't own Dogecoin and my previous comment was mainly in reference to btc and eth.
- mattwilsonn888 5y ago
  That was not point. I feel it was fairly clear: Its not a dream when the hackers could turn it into 'real' money, which they easily could have (not all of it, but enough). But they couldn't crack into the pot despite the insane amount of honey right in front of them.
pjc50 5y ago
No sane attacker attacks the strong point. They go for the weak points. https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/crypto-platform-suffers-log4j-related-ransomware-attack-a-18219 https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/crypto-platform-suffers-log... (I wonder what happens if attacks are ever found against SHA-256 as they were for SHA-1?)
- realce 5y ago
  My most-paranoid self thinks that crypto is basically a giant cracking algo being tested out.
- mattwilsonn888 5y ago
  The article you linked refers to a centralized service being hacked to steal data - truly only related to crypto network security superficially. SHA-1 exploits were found by researchers, if SHA-256 had the same forewarning protocols would initiate an emergency fork with a more secure hash function.

delegate 5y ago

The trillion dollars is a dream, it's not real.. Fugazzi. Once the price starts falling, the scared 'investors' will get rid of it at any price to reduce loss. The network won't handle the load, so the price will drop even more. It happened before with BTC, where the 'billions' evaporated in hours, it will happen to the 'trillions'.

_Algernon_ 5y ago
And the price will go up again after a great buying opportunity for the people who see the value of the technology. As has happened before.
- lottin 5y ago
  What value do you think people see in Dogecoin, for example?
  - mattwilsonn888 5y ago
    Funnily enough Dogecoin started as something completely antithetical to all the things about web3 'culture' HN hates the most. It was something to make fun of the venture capitalists wowing novices with buzzwords to part them from their money. I would say its now obviously overvalued considering the amount of money which flows there rather than to projects making real innovations. But then again, how do price a meme anyways?
  - _Algernon_ 5y ago
    Value resides where people believe it resides, and if 2021 has shown one thing, it is that the power of memes is practically infinite. That being said, I don't own Dogecoin and my previous comment was mainly in reference to btc and eth.
mattwilsonn888 5y ago
That was not point. I feel it was fairly clear: Its not a dream when the hackers could turn it into 'real' money, which they easily could have (not all of it, but enough). But they couldn't crack into the pot despite the insane amount of honey right in front of them.

pjc50 5y ago

No sane attacker attacks the strong point. They go for the weak points. https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/crypto-platform-suffers-log4j-related-ransomware-attack-a-18219 https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/crypto-platform-suffers-log... (I wonder what happens if attacks are ever found against SHA-256 as they were for SHA-1?)

realce 5y ago
My most-paranoid self thinks that crypto is basically a giant cracking algo being tested out.
mattwilsonn888 5y ago
The article you linked refers to a centralized service being hacked to steal data - truly only related to crypto network security superficially. SHA-1 exploits were found by researchers, if SHA-256 had the same forewarning protocols would initiate an emergency fork with a more secure hash function.