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This position is inconsistent. > All these things have a value returned to society in some shape or form, even if just as entertainment. If other people find

This position is inconsistent. > All these things have a value returned to society in some shape or form, even if just as entertainment. If other people find crypto mining fun, valuable, or meaningful, then how are you able to claim they are wrong when you're relying on 'entertainment' to justify Netflix, etc? > Being more mindful about our resources' usage is not a ploy, it's simply the mindset we need to have if we plan on having a comfortable future, it's pretty basic thinking: we need to be more efficient and mindful of where we spend our limited resources because the wake up call has come. I agree with this sentiment in general. I think you could be more precise in your condemnation of cryptocurrency while justifying Netflix.

acdha 5y ago
> If other people find crypto mining fun, valuable, or meaningful, then how are you able to claim they are wrong when you're relying on 'entertainment' to justify Netflix, etc? They’re using orders of magnitude more power for one thing, but also they clearly do not consider this as entertaining as watching Netflix because if they did they’d be talking about that. Nobody says they love random hashes, it’s always about how much money you can make selling them to someone else. NFTs theoretically could get closer to that but most of the salespeople never mention the artists’ names, much less give a reason why the aesthetic merits justify a high valuation: it always comes down to “buy high, sell higher”. Twitter’s NFT integration is a great example: they’re not linking to them because anyone cares about the artwork, it’s not new that you commission art, but it’s highlighted on profile pictures because people want to say “I spent a lot of money on this receipt. You can buy it from me!” Contrast this with the early days of the web or smartphones: yes, lots of people talked about money but that was because a much larger group of people were having fun doing things that they couldn’t have done before. The point was to actually build something, not just put up a sign saying you spent a lot of money on something you didn’t have to.
- politician 5y ago
  > They’re using orders of magnitude more power for one thing. It's not clear whether this statement is true. Do you have sources? I'm serious, do you know how much infrastructure is required to deliver Netflix streams globally? How much investment went into building that infrastructure on top of all of the supporting infrastructure and its energy costs? > Nobody says they love [NFTs]... [it's not] as entertaining as watching Netflix. These people like making money and they derive pleasure from it. How's that any different from 'watches TV and derives pleasure from it'? It's not. This isn't a logically consistent position to take. Your claim here reduces to "Making money != entertainment Therefore Crypto is Bad". It's nonsensical.
  - acdha 5y ago
    > I'm serious, do you know how much infrastructure is required to deliver Netflix streams globally? According to Netflix, an hour of streaming is 100g CO2e: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/net-zero-nature-our-climate-commitment https://about.netflix.com/en/news/net-zero-nature-our-climat... Estimates vary about Bitcoin's exact cost but they generally come in on the order of kilograms per transaction, and because far, far more actual people use Netflix than use Bitcoin for real activity a fair fraction of those transactions are overhead rather than a single economic transaction. > > Nobody says they love [NFTs]... [it's not] as entertaining as watching Netflix. > These people like making money and they derive pleasure from it. How's that any different from 'watches TV and derives pleasure from it'? It's not. This was explained in the parts you elided. If people were doing this out of some aesthetic appreciation for random hashes, we'd know because they would be talking about that. Instead the sales pitch is always about the things they can do after cashing out into hard currency. There are almost certainly some people who define themselves on making a number go up but they're not represented at all in the marketing material.

acdha 5y ago

> If other people find crypto mining fun, valuable, or meaningful, then how are you able to claim they are wrong when you're relying on 'entertainment' to justify Netflix, etc? They’re using orders of magnitude more power for one thing, but also they clearly do not consider this as entertaining as watching Netflix because if they did they’d be talking about that. Nobody says they love random hashes, it’s always about how much money you can make selling them to someone else. NFTs theoretically could get closer to that but most of the salespeople never mention the artists’ names, much less give a reason why the aesthetic merits justify a high valuation: it always comes down to “buy high, sell higher”. Twitter’s NFT integration is a great example: they’re not linking to them because anyone cares about the artwork, it’s not new that you commission art, but it’s highlighted on profile pictures because people want to say “I spent a lot of money on this receipt. You can buy it from me!” Contrast this with the early days of the web or smartphones: yes, lots of people talked about money but that was because a much larger group of people were having fun doing things that they couldn’t have done before. The point was to actually build something, not just put up a sign saying you spent a lot of money on something you didn’t have to.

politician 5y ago
> They’re using orders of magnitude more power for one thing. It's not clear whether this statement is true. Do you have sources? I'm serious, do you know how much infrastructure is required to deliver Netflix streams globally? How much investment went into building that infrastructure on top of all of the supporting infrastructure and its energy costs? > Nobody says they love [NFTs]... [it's not] as entertaining as watching Netflix. These people like making money and they derive pleasure from it. How's that any different from 'watches TV and derives pleasure from it'? It's not. This isn't a logically consistent position to take. Your claim here reduces to "Making money != entertainment Therefore Crypto is Bad". It's nonsensical.
- acdha 5y ago
  > I'm serious, do you know how much infrastructure is required to deliver Netflix streams globally? According to Netflix, an hour of streaming is 100g CO2e: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/net-zero-nature-our-climate-commitment https://about.netflix.com/en/news/net-zero-nature-our-climat... Estimates vary about Bitcoin's exact cost but they generally come in on the order of kilograms per transaction, and because far, far more actual people use Netflix than use Bitcoin for real activity a fair fraction of those transactions are overhead rather than a single economic transaction. > > Nobody says they love [NFTs]... [it's not] as entertaining as watching Netflix. > These people like making money and they derive pleasure from it. How's that any different from 'watches TV and derives pleasure from it'? It's not. This was explained in the parts you elided. If people were doing this out of some aesthetic appreciation for random hashes, we'd know because they would be talking about that. Instead the sales pitch is always about the things they can do after cashing out into hard currency. There are almost certainly some people who define themselves on making a number go up but they're not represented at all in the marketing material.