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uhh - this is exactly "not systems thinking" .. it is an individual opportunistic thinking. Responses below link to broad societal effects, various environmenta
by mistrial9 5y ago
uhh - this is exactly "not systems thinking" .. it is an individual opportunistic thinking. Responses below link to broad societal effects, various environmental claims, appeals to morality and reason.. all of which intersect very little with the "I see food" diet implied by this question.
As an analogy, the sticky part of lottery tickets is, people will reliably participate with their own money; others complain; nothing changes as people do it again anyway. Opportunistic planners take advantage of the "I see food" people, make glossy lottery tickets and pay a premium to food store managers to sell those lottery tickets; more people complain.
Can we identify the systems parts in play here, to create enough context to actually decide what is important, what is unstoppable, and what might be a rational, thinking response to all of this going on ?
- cowtools 5y agoGood points, but I think that if you want to consider the "ethics" of cryptocurrency mining, you have to acknowledge that currently there is a lot of hype around crypto that will eventually go away. There are a lot of irrational actors. If you want to make a statement about the nature of bitcoin, I would consider an "equilibrium" situation where: * The cost of specialized hardware is stable (e.g. what are the economies of scale as t->infinity ?) * The price of bitcoin in terms of energy (BTC/watt hr) is stable * Miners are rational actors It seems to me like the most concerning aspect of cryptocurrency mining is that the hashrate is dependent on externalities like the price of bitcoin, rather than the necessary hashrate to defeat a 51% attack.
- catlifeonmars 5y ago> currently there is a lot of hype around crypto that will eventually go away. What is the mechanism that will make this happen?