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Good god did someone drink the kool-aid... please explain succinctly what "problem" is being solved by a handful of wealthy individuals using all of the world's

Good god did someone drink the kool-aid... please explain succinctly what "problem" is being solved by a handful of wealthy individuals using all of the world's GPU power to mine numbers for mostly unusable currency...

tasha0663 5y ago
The "vanity receipts for badly drawn apes problem"
danuker 5y ago
> mostly unusable currency I suppose that's why it has grown in price in spite of its supply slowly increasing. Because it's unusable! (sarcasm) > "problem" being solved In essence, it takes scarcity to make scarcity. So, to get digital scarcity, you have to fork over scarce resources. But I agree with you that the computing cost is excessive, and the reward function was not well calibrated. On the other hand, the rate of the explosion in price could not have been foreseen.
- megapolitics 5y ago
  >I suppose that's why it has grown in price in spite of its supply slowly increasing. Because it's unusable! The fact that the price is consistently increasing is what makes it an unusable currency. A deflationary currency is a useless medium of exchange as any rational actor will not spend it due to the potential future increase in price. I hold multiple crypto assets but I think you have to be kidding yourself if you think that Bitcoin and the like are usable currencies.
  - danuker 5y ago
    Computer hardware has gotten exponentially cheaper in the past half-century. But people keep buying it. I am looking to buy a flat, so I will spend some of my Bitcoin.
aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
All of the same problems that the "Internet" as we agree upon it, via protocols, is solving today, just slightly worse (because its brand new and you keep speaking against it instead of improving it, for some reason) and also with better security, and portability. Rhetorical, almost flabbergasted questions for you to consider: What problems does "money I can store on a Ti-83" solve?! What problems does the Ethereum Virtual Machine solve, as far as turning decentralized network code into a server/computer?
- lewispollard 5y ago
  > and also with better security, and portability. What security? > What problems does the Ethereum Virtual Machine solve, as far as turning decentralized network code into a server/computer? Given that the eth VM uses a fraction of a single percentage of its processing power to run smart contracts (like, 0.00000001%), and the rest in redundantly verifying those transactions, it's not solving any problem of decentralised processing in a useful way.
datadata 5y ago
This article is about making custom purpose silicon only usable for sha256 based proof of work mining, and has nothing to do with GPUs. GPUs have not been profitable to use in bitcoin mining for many years now.

tasha0663 5y ago

The "vanity receipts for badly drawn apes problem"

danuker 5y ago

> mostly unusable currency I suppose that's why it has grown in price in spite of its supply slowly increasing. Because it's unusable! (sarcasm) > "problem" being solved In essence, it takes scarcity to make scarcity. So, to get digital scarcity, you have to fork over scarce resources. But I agree with you that the computing cost is excessive, and the reward function was not well calibrated. On the other hand, the rate of the explosion in price could not have been foreseen.

megapolitics 5y ago
>I suppose that's why it has grown in price in spite of its supply slowly increasing. Because it's unusable! The fact that the price is consistently increasing is what makes it an unusable currency. A deflationary currency is a useless medium of exchange as any rational actor will not spend it due to the potential future increase in price. I hold multiple crypto assets but I think you have to be kidding yourself if you think that Bitcoin and the like are usable currencies.
- danuker 5y ago
  Computer hardware has gotten exponentially cheaper in the past half-century. But people keep buying it. I am looking to buy a flat, so I will spend some of my Bitcoin.

aaaaaaaaata 5y ago

All of the same problems that the "Internet" as we agree upon it, via protocols, is solving today, just slightly worse (because its brand new and you keep speaking against it instead of improving it, for some reason) and also with better security, and portability. Rhetorical, almost flabbergasted questions for you to consider: What problems does "money I can store on a Ti-83" solve?! What problems does the Ethereum Virtual Machine solve, as far as turning decentralized network code into a server/computer?

lewispollard 5y ago
> and also with better security, and portability. What security? > What problems does the Ethereum Virtual Machine solve, as far as turning decentralized network code into a server/computer? Given that the eth VM uses a fraction of a single percentage of its processing power to run smart contracts (like, 0.00000001%), and the rest in redundantly verifying those transactions, it's not solving any problem of decentralised processing in a useful way.

datadata 5y ago

This article is about making custom purpose silicon only usable for sha256 based proof of work mining, and has nothing to do with GPUs. GPUs have not been profitable to use in bitcoin mining for many years now.