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A Eulogy for Bitcoin

17 points by noch 4y ago

eyeball 4y ago
“ The sun is setting on the era of Bitcoin dominance. ” The only thing that will do that is govt regulation.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  I think serious crash of economy might do that. Whatever the gold, silver and crypto people say. I see that crypto is just extension of traditional market casinos.
WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
People have been saying that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general will die soon for a while now. It has not happened. I say that it's too soon to say. Bitcoin will need to change its power consumption ways, that's for sure. But I'm one that believes that instead of reducing its power consumption, Bitcoin, the community, will find better ways to produce green power.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Ironically, the past month has been much worse for Ethereum than Bitcoin, price-wise.
  - WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
    Ethereum has a pricing problem. How do you price an infinite asset that's cheap to produce? Previously you could peg it to the cost of production. Now its price will be directly influenced by how much it earns. I suspect that as time passes its price will go down reflecting what it costs to produce. It's good for the currency and apps that are created around it but I suspect it will be bad as an asset investment. It has a bright future but the price appreciation of Ether by speculation is over.
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      An infinitely deflationary currency will be hard to popularize as anything other than a fiat. With the regulation around custodial Ethereum, I doubt the whole "dApp" ecosystem is going to go anywhere beyond where it stalled-out circa-2017.
- kevinak 4y ago
  No Bitcoin does not need to change its power consumption ways. It literally incentivises the build out of renewable energy. It will fix itself in time.
  - woeh 4y ago
    How does Bitcoin have literal incentives to build out renewable energy? I've heard the claim before, but I'm not following. Doesn't Bitcoin mining just incentivize generating energy in general - green or otherwise? As a counterpoint: A recent study from Cambridge [0] estimates most of Bitcoins energy consumption still to be from fossil fuels. [0] https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/insight/2022/a-deep-dive-into-bitcoin's-environmental-impact/ https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/insight/2022/a-deep-dive-into-bitc...
    - adammarples 4y ago
      One thing that I could say is that bitcoin mining can happen anywhere while typically energy has to be transported to population hubs. I'm not sure I agree that this fact has incentivised much renewables building.
    - kevinak 4y ago
      It incentivises using the cheapest energy which is renewable. Bitcoin could even be greenhouse negative - just stick a mine on top of every landfill around and you have a recipe to get rid of methane gas. Or on oil fields where they accidentally run into gas pockets. Looks to me like GHG emissions are going down this year, from that report. I would expect that to continue going forward as more miners are deployed on top of cheap electricity sources :)
      - woeh 4y ago
        Isn't every energy consumer incentivized to use the cheapest available energy source? In case of a landfill, there probably is a city nearby which would benefit from cheap electricity. Perhaps miners have an advantage over a city in that they can move or disable mining rigs in times when renewables are scarce. But from what I understand Asics are expensive, and running them is big business. Which probably means they will continue running while it is financially feasible, even when a nearby dam runs dry or there is not enough wind or solar to go about.
fritolaid 4y ago
The way our brain is equipped to process concepts is an over-simplification and confusing of what some refer to as the deeper reality or simply the reality that our mind obfuscates. It's worse than Plato's Cave. It's futile to opine on things that we don't yet fully comprehend in the greater scheme of things. We don't even know (yet we think we do) what we're opining about. Good luck with all such feeble attempts at deciphering reality. No, this was not written by a bot, and I am talking about Bitcoin. But I mean in general...
- pyinstallwoes 4y ago
  Oh you’re suggesting that Timechain is actually the DNA of AI and serves as the simulacrum driving our meta reality like a fractal? Yeah it’s cool.
  - fritolaid 4y ago
    No, not the thing itself. Humans are fixated on the thing itself. I couldn't care less about the Dorkchain, but what role it plays in the greater scheme of things. Be it bad or good from your individual perspective.
throw101010 4y ago
Ethereum has changed its monetary policy on the whims of few influential people, including Vitalik Buterin. It is currently deflationary, but now eveyone knows that this can change overnight if the right (few) people want it. With this change it further renounced to its chances to be a replacement of Bitcoin, so it won't bury it, and this eulogy is comical at best... like the hundreds of previous ones from other tokens/networks. Bitcoin has a track record of keeping its fundamental principle intact (fixed supply, verifiable on low-end hardware, no premine/ICO, etc.), and it makes all the difference when it come to be an actual sound form of money.
- acapybara 4y ago
  Bitcoin has died 463 times so far: https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/ https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/

17 points by noch 4y ago

eyeball 4y ago

“ The sun is setting on the era of Bitcoin dominance. ” The only thing that will do that is govt regulation.

Ekaros 4y ago
I think serious crash of economy might do that. Whatever the gold, silver and crypto people say. I see that crypto is just extension of traditional market casinos.

WheelsAtLarge 4y ago

People have been saying that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general will die soon for a while now. It has not happened. I say that it's too soon to say. Bitcoin will need to change its power consumption ways, that's for sure. But I'm one that believes that instead of reducing its power consumption, Bitcoin, the community, will find better ways to produce green power.

smoldesu 4y ago
Ironically, the past month has been much worse for Ethereum than Bitcoin, price-wise.
- WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
  Ethereum has a pricing problem. How do you price an infinite asset that's cheap to produce? Previously you could peg it to the cost of production. Now its price will be directly influenced by how much it earns. I suspect that as time passes its price will go down reflecting what it costs to produce. It's good for the currency and apps that are created around it but I suspect it will be bad as an asset investment. It has a bright future but the price appreciation of Ether by speculation is over.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    An infinitely deflationary currency will be hard to popularize as anything other than a fiat. With the regulation around custodial Ethereum, I doubt the whole "dApp" ecosystem is going to go anywhere beyond where it stalled-out circa-2017.
kevinak 4y ago
No Bitcoin does not need to change its power consumption ways. It literally incentivises the build out of renewable energy. It will fix itself in time.
- woeh 4y ago
  How does Bitcoin have literal incentives to build out renewable energy? I've heard the claim before, but I'm not following. Doesn't Bitcoin mining just incentivize generating energy in general - green or otherwise? As a counterpoint: A recent study from Cambridge [0] estimates most of Bitcoins energy consumption still to be from fossil fuels. [0] https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/insight/2022/a-deep-dive-into-bitcoin's-environmental-impact/ https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/insight/2022/a-deep-dive-into-bitc...
  - adammarples 4y ago
    One thing that I could say is that bitcoin mining can happen anywhere while typically energy has to be transported to population hubs. I'm not sure I agree that this fact has incentivised much renewables building.
  - kevinak 4y ago
    It incentivises using the cheapest energy which is renewable. Bitcoin could even be greenhouse negative - just stick a mine on top of every landfill around and you have a recipe to get rid of methane gas. Or on oil fields where they accidentally run into gas pockets. Looks to me like GHG emissions are going down this year, from that report. I would expect that to continue going forward as more miners are deployed on top of cheap electricity sources :)
    - woeh 4y ago
      Isn't every energy consumer incentivized to use the cheapest available energy source? In case of a landfill, there probably is a city nearby which would benefit from cheap electricity. Perhaps miners have an advantage over a city in that they can move or disable mining rigs in times when renewables are scarce. But from what I understand Asics are expensive, and running them is big business. Which probably means they will continue running while it is financially feasible, even when a nearby dam runs dry or there is not enough wind or solar to go about.

fritolaid 4y ago

The way our brain is equipped to process concepts is an over-simplification and confusing of what some refer to as the deeper reality or simply the reality that our mind obfuscates. It's worse than Plato's Cave. It's futile to opine on things that we don't yet fully comprehend in the greater scheme of things. We don't even know (yet we think we do) what we're opining about. Good luck with all such feeble attempts at deciphering reality. No, this was not written by a bot, and I am talking about Bitcoin. But I mean in general...

pyinstallwoes 4y ago
Oh you’re suggesting that Timechain is actually the DNA of AI and serves as the simulacrum driving our meta reality like a fractal? Yeah it’s cool.
- fritolaid 4y ago
  No, not the thing itself. Humans are fixated on the thing itself. I couldn't care less about the Dorkchain, but what role it plays in the greater scheme of things. Be it bad or good from your individual perspective.

throw101010 4y ago

Ethereum has changed its monetary policy on the whims of few influential people, including Vitalik Buterin. It is currently deflationary, but now eveyone knows that this can change overnight if the right (few) people want it. With this change it further renounced to its chances to be a replacement of Bitcoin, so it won't bury it, and this eulogy is comical at best... like the hundreds of previous ones from other tokens/networks. Bitcoin has a track record of keeping its fundamental principle intact (fixed supply, verifiable on low-end hardware, no premine/ICO, etc.), and it makes all the difference when it come to be an actual sound form of money.

acapybara 4y ago
Bitcoin has died 463 times so far: https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/ https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/