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You'd have to exert the same amount of energy to clone Bitcoin as is being used in it's mining. Because the input energy is scarce, it is not trivial to clone a

You'd have to exert the same amount of energy to clone Bitcoin as is being used in it's mining. Because the input energy is scarce, it is not trivial to clone as you are saying. You are also ignoring network effects entirely. Number of users of Bitcoin have increased year after year.

jqpabc123 5y ago
You'd have to exert the same amount of energy to clone Bitcoin ... The cloner would have to exert the same energy to mining that Satoshi Nakamoto did/does --- zero. Others will do this for you. But thanks for pointing out the absurdity/weakness of Bitcoin and one of the reasons why it fails as a currency. You do know there are other options for cloning.
- datadata 5y ago
  That would be true if you could time travel to 2008. In 2022 you have to compete with what already exists, not with how what already exists was created. There are no other options for cloning a PoW blockchain. You would not easily get "others to do this for you" to the same degree that bitcoin already has. I generally agree with you though that cloning a PoS blockchain is easy in this regard, those ones also are protected by network effects.
  - jqpabc123 5y ago
    That would be true if you could time travel to 2008. It's more true in 2022, no time travel required. Unlike 2008, the awareness and the operations needed to mine a bitcoin clone are already in place, fully setup and operational, running 24/7. Just offer rewards like bitcoin did back in 2008 and the existing miners will be all over it like white on rice. There is very little additional expense to mining a clone alongside bitcoin. The equipment will be running either way.
    - datadata 5y ago
      To offer rewards you would need users and a vibrant market, otherwise the price would collapse and mining would not be profitable, or you are going to have to personally subsidize the rewards yourself, which would not qualify as cloning bitcoing for free. Bitcoin has these things which is why bitcoin mining is profitable, and why the majority of PoW mining is for bitcoin.

jqpabc123 5y ago

You'd have to exert the same amount of energy to clone Bitcoin ... The cloner would have to exert the same energy to mining that Satoshi Nakamoto did/does --- zero. Others will do this for you. But thanks for pointing out the absurdity/weakness of Bitcoin and one of the reasons why it fails as a currency. You do know there are other options for cloning.

datadata 5y ago
That would be true if you could time travel to 2008. In 2022 you have to compete with what already exists, not with how what already exists was created. There are no other options for cloning a PoW blockchain. You would not easily get "others to do this for you" to the same degree that bitcoin already has. I generally agree with you though that cloning a PoS blockchain is easy in this regard, those ones also are protected by network effects.
- jqpabc123 5y ago
  That would be true if you could time travel to 2008. It's more true in 2022, no time travel required. Unlike 2008, the awareness and the operations needed to mine a bitcoin clone are already in place, fully setup and operational, running 24/7. Just offer rewards like bitcoin did back in 2008 and the existing miners will be all over it like white on rice. There is very little additional expense to mining a clone alongside bitcoin. The equipment will be running either way.
  - datadata 5y ago
    To offer rewards you would need users and a vibrant market, otherwise the price would collapse and mining would not be profitable, or you are going to have to personally subsidize the rewards yourself, which would not qualify as cloning bitcoing for free. Bitcoin has these things which is why bitcoin mining is profitable, and why the majority of PoW mining is for bitcoin.