3 ms·

The parent to your post never asserted “moral authority” around how power is used, only that they think this shift is a good thing in their view.

latchkey 4y ago
> at least that power would go to something useful I consider that a moral opinion.
- simondotau 4y ago
  Ultimately it wasn’t the grandparent that asserted that proof-of-work Etherium mining wasn’t useful, it was the Etherium blockchain community themselves — which is why they have stopped doing it. It’s not a “moral opinion” to accept someone else’s assessment of the utility of their own actions. Is it a “moral opinion” to state a preference that crude oil is more useful when refined and injected into an ICE vehicle than if it’s burned on site in an oil well fire?
  - latchkey 4y ago
    My point is that it is not your (or my) right to tell anyone what a good use of power is or is not. Simply because we all consume power one way or another. Expressing an opinion is fine... we can all have one of those, but we should be considerate of pot/kettle there.
  - samatman 4y ago
    You have this backward actually, the fact that Ethereum went to great lengths to design a more power-efficient replacement for PoW (rather than, say, doing something else with their lives) shows that PoW was useful to begin with.
    - simondotau 4y ago
      The fact that Ethereum went to great lengths to design a more power-efficient replacement for PoW shows that the developers of Etherium derive personal value from an engagement with a technical challenge. It does suggest but doesn't prove that any permutation of the project was/is actually useful.
      - samatman 4y ago
        Your definition of useful sucks, and you should feel really bad about that. I don't get too concerned about how you waste my oxygen, but you're making me rethink that decision.
        simondotau 4y ago
        I’m sorry to hear that you’ve become stuck in a semantic bog-hole, but amused to learn that my words are so powerful that they overwhelm your conscious agency.

latchkey 4y ago

> at least that power would go to something useful I consider that a moral opinion.

simondotau 4y ago
Ultimately it wasn’t the grandparent that asserted that proof-of-work Etherium mining wasn’t useful, it was the Etherium blockchain community themselves — which is why they have stopped doing it. It’s not a “moral opinion” to accept someone else’s assessment of the utility of their own actions. Is it a “moral opinion” to state a preference that crude oil is more useful when refined and injected into an ICE vehicle than if it’s burned on site in an oil well fire?
- latchkey 4y ago
  My point is that it is not your (or my) right to tell anyone what a good use of power is or is not. Simply because we all consume power one way or another. Expressing an opinion is fine... we can all have one of those, but we should be considerate of pot/kettle there.
- samatman 4y ago
  You have this backward actually, the fact that Ethereum went to great lengths to design a more power-efficient replacement for PoW (rather than, say, doing something else with their lives) shows that PoW was useful to begin with.
  - simondotau 4y ago
    The fact that Ethereum went to great lengths to design a more power-efficient replacement for PoW shows that the developers of Etherium derive personal value from an engagement with a technical challenge. It does suggest but doesn't prove that any permutation of the project was/is actually useful.
    - samatman 4y ago
      Your definition of useful sucks, and you should feel really bad about that. I don't get too concerned about how you waste my oxygen, but you're making me rethink that decision.
      - simondotau 4y ago
        I’m sorry to hear that you’ve become stuck in a semantic bog-hole, but amused to learn that my words are so powerful that they overwhelm your conscious agency.