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Good news about all those chucky tokens is that gpus will iterate and innovate much faster than otherwise.

pjc50 5y ago
This does not follow at all; the GPUs were already iterating basically as fast as they can go - after all, why would it be, it's not sped up by putting more on the production line or more engineers on the design side. NVIDIA at least have been trying anti-cryptomining measures in their firmware. A form of defensive innovation, I suppose. The crypto advocates really do not want to hear it, but their proof-of-waste scheme has big negative externalities for other people.
- idiotsecant 5y ago
  Proof-of-work is not the only workable consensus mechanism, as Ethereum moves from a PoW to a PoS model Soon(*) that should improve. (*) {currentDate} + 18 months*
  - floatboth 5y ago
    Highly doubt that this will reduce the amount of mining in the world. Eth miners will mostly just switch to a different shitcoin. As long as BTC is dominant, mining will keep wasting gigatons of power. And how exactly would anyone dethrone BTC? The first mover advantage is everything, and nothing else has it.
    - idiotsecant 5y ago
      How? By not being massively expensive but still being equally secure (in addition to doing more than just moving ledger entries from one wallet to another) Crypto 'mining' is not a fundamental or necessary feature of the universe - it is a very strange, very short duration thing that will show up in the history books as one of those wildly irresponsible and completely ridiculous things people did for a little while until they figured out a better way to do it. It will show up on the same chapter as biplanes and trench warfare 100 years from now.
- howdydoo 5y ago
  >it's not sped up by putting more on the production line or more engineers on the design side Of course it is. If revenue fell by 90%, nvidia would spend much less on R&D and progress would be much slower. If revenue doubled, nvidia would spend much more on R&D and progress would speed up. If revenue fell to $0, nvidia would go out of business, spend $0 on R&D, and progress would halt. There's a direct, although not linear, relationship. The more money there is, the faster progress is (as long as you trust nvidia to spend it wisely and execute) I don't mine crypto, but I like fast tech, so I say let the money keep flooding in so we all benefit.
  - floatboth 5y ago
    The demand from gaming & workstation & datacenter is absolutely huge, revenue would not fall without buttcoiners because the GPUs would still fly off the shelves. In fact buttminers create a new risk for the vendors: whenever buttcoins seriously crash, the market will suddenly be flooded with used GPUs.

This does not follow at all; the GPUs were already iterating basically as fast as they can go - after all, why would it be, it's not sped up by putting more on the production line or more engineers on the design side. NVIDIA at least have been trying anti-cryptomining measures in their firmware. A form of defensive innovation, I suppose. The crypto advocates really do not want to hear it, but their proof-of-waste scheme has big negative externalities for other people.

idiotsecant 5y ago
Proof-of-work is not the only workable consensus mechanism, as Ethereum moves from a PoW to a PoS model Soon(*) that should improve. (*) {currentDate} + 18 months*
- floatboth 5y ago
  Highly doubt that this will reduce the amount of mining in the world. Eth miners will mostly just switch to a different shitcoin. As long as BTC is dominant, mining will keep wasting gigatons of power. And how exactly would anyone dethrone BTC? The first mover advantage is everything, and nothing else has it.
  - idiotsecant 5y ago
    How? By not being massively expensive but still being equally secure (in addition to doing more than just moving ledger entries from one wallet to another) Crypto 'mining' is not a fundamental or necessary feature of the universe - it is a very strange, very short duration thing that will show up in the history books as one of those wildly irresponsible and completely ridiculous things people did for a little while until they figured out a better way to do it. It will show up on the same chapter as biplanes and trench warfare 100 years from now.
howdydoo 5y ago
>it's not sped up by putting more on the production line or more engineers on the design side Of course it is. If revenue fell by 90%, nvidia would spend much less on R&D and progress would be much slower. If revenue doubled, nvidia would spend much more on R&D and progress would speed up. If revenue fell to $0, nvidia would go out of business, spend $0 on R&D, and progress would halt. There's a direct, although not linear, relationship. The more money there is, the faster progress is (as long as you trust nvidia to spend it wisely and execute) I don't mine crypto, but I like fast tech, so I say let the money keep flooding in so we all benefit.
- floatboth 5y ago
  The demand from gaming & workstation & datacenter is absolutely huge, revenue would not fall without buttcoiners because the GPUs would still fly off the shelves. In fact buttminers create a new risk for the vendors: whenever buttcoins seriously crash, the market will suddenly be flooded with used GPUs.