3 ms·

> And crypto needs to be banned because it's all a gigantic scam that has a gigantic environmental cost attached to it. Is it worse than, let's say, Christmas

by ls15 5y ago

> And crypto needs to be banned because it's all a gigantic scam that has a gigantic environmental cost attached to it. Is it worse than, let's say, Christmas in this regard?

tick_tock_tick 5y ago
Yes
- ls15 5y ago
  How so? Christmas lights, plastic trash, food waste and transportation combined?
  - acdha 5y ago
    Those do something useful and there's a cap on how much people use: if I put up lights and then my neighbors put up lights, I don't put up twice as many lights so I can out-compete them for carolers and I certainly don't buy another house to put up even more lights. Proof-of-waste effectively requires that of all participants.
    - ls15 5y ago
      People (and cities) absolutely try to out-compete each other with christmas lights. Even countries with negligible Christian populations are taking part nowadays. Don't forget all the other wasteful elements of christmas. And all the christmas-related scams and crime. And the yearly spikes in domestic violence. The growth of the christmas price index seems to go to the moon. How is celebrating some guy's birthday 2000 years later useful and how does it justify all of this? And does it at least really have a lower environmental impact than crypto?
      - acdha 5y ago
        There's some competition, yes, but it's bounded — even the most extravagant Christmas display is nowhere near the maximum amount of lights which could be placed in the space, not to mention only operating for a few weeks a year. The design of Bitcoin ensures that does _not_ happen there, and it's currently using a massive amount of power to process a tiny fraction of the total economy, especially after you account for the transactions which are not linked to real economic value (money laundering, wash trading, etc.). The design ensures that if someone did find a useful application which saw popular adoption, usage would need to be many orders of magnitude higher than it is now.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

by ls15 5y ago

> And crypto needs to be banned because it's all a gigantic scam that has a gigantic environmental cost attached to it. Is it worse than, let's say, Christmas in this regard?

tick_tock_tick 5y ago

Yes

ls15 5y ago
How so? Christmas lights, plastic trash, food waste and transportation combined?
- acdha 5y ago
  Those do something useful and there's a cap on how much people use: if I put up lights and then my neighbors put up lights, I don't put up twice as many lights so I can out-compete them for carolers and I certainly don't buy another house to put up even more lights. Proof-of-waste effectively requires that of all participants.
  - ls15 5y ago
    People (and cities) absolutely try to out-compete each other with christmas lights. Even countries with negligible Christian populations are taking part nowadays. Don't forget all the other wasteful elements of christmas. And all the christmas-related scams and crime. And the yearly spikes in domestic violence. The growth of the christmas price index seems to go to the moon. How is celebrating some guy's birthday 2000 years later useful and how does it justify all of this? And does it at least really have a lower environmental impact than crypto?
    - acdha 5y ago
      There's some competition, yes, but it's bounded — even the most extravagant Christmas display is nowhere near the maximum amount of lights which could be placed in the space, not to mention only operating for a few weeks a year. The design of Bitcoin ensures that does _not_ happen there, and it's currently using a massive amount of power to process a tiny fraction of the total economy, especially after you account for the transactions which are not linked to real economic value (money laundering, wash trading, etc.). The design ensures that if someone did find a useful application which saw popular adoption, usage would need to be many orders of magnitude higher than it is now.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]