14 ms·
It would be nice if all that electricity could be used to help the less fortunate on this planet.
by o_s_m 13y ago
It would be nice if all that electricity could be used to help the less fortunate on this planet.
- ISL 13y agoIf it means frictionless commerce with anyone worldwide, perhaps it will?
- broostoryco 13y agoExactly, its the price we pay for the currency network, which is incidentally much less than what we pay now to commercial banks for using their payment network (spoiler: that money does not help the less fortunate of the world either)
- eterm 13y agoNothing about bitcoin is tending towards frictionless commerce. That is an argument people make to excuse the huge waste of power (by extension generating a large amont of pollution) that goes into bitcoin. The reality is that all the forces that slow down electronic dollars also slow down other electronic currencies.
- pjc50 13y agoWhat forces are those?
- drcross 13y agoThe energy required to obtain gold from the earth, when you compare it to bitcoin, makes your comment farcical
- eterm 13y agoCurrencies aren't backed by gold. They're backed by governments. The united states dollar is just as much a "virtual currency" as bitcoin.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoAll currencies are a shared delusion. If everyone believes something has value, it does.
- mrb 13y agoOpen your eyes. Bitcoin is helping the unfortunate on this planet: - it is helping Argentinians escape their government's stupidity who is inflating their currency and limiting access to safer currencies (eg. USD) [1] - it is helping Iranians working or living abroad to send bitcoins to their families [2] - it is freeing people from financial censorship, eg. oppressive governments freezing bank accounts or donations to political opposition - etc The effect of Bitcoin on society is just barely starting to be seen! A decentralized currency truly has an amazing potential. [1] http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/07/17/bitcoin-downloads-surge-in-argentina/ http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/07/17/bitcoin-downloads-... [2] http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-29/dollar-less-iranians-discover-virtual-currency http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-29/dollar-less-...
- chatman 13y agoYou call Argentinians and Iranians unfortunate? Even US citizens are living under financial censorship, are they unfortunate? mrb means the poor people who don't have enough power to light up their homes at night.
- vbuterin 13y agoHere ya go: http://www.pymnts.com/briefing-room/issuers/virtual-currency/2013/kipochi-enables-bitcoin-remittance-via-m-pesa/ http://www.pymnts.com/briefing-room/issuers/virtual-currency...
- baddox 13y agoOh right, all resources should only be spent on literally the most unfortunate single human on the planet, until he or she becomes the second most unfortunate human on the planet, ad infinitum.
- hnolable 13y agoIf you're interested in a Bitcoin like currency without mining check out Ripple.
- BetaCygni 13y agoIf you're interested in a scam, check out Ripple...
- simias 13y agoI've never heard of ripple before the GP's post, any particular reason why you consider it a scam? After all, many people consider bitcoin to be a scam as well...
- tych0 13y agoThe coin is issued by a central entity who has kept 50% of it. This makes people suspicious. Bitcoin has no central issuing entity, thus no one person to 'get rich quick' in some scam type operation.
- Nursie 13y agoInstead it has a few early adopters with massive stakes, and a roughly 90% hoarding rate from the last analysis I saw.
- BetaCygni 13y agoYeah, the early adopters got rich. I think that's fair because they invested in something that was really uncertain at that point. You could even argue that if you buy bitcoins now you're still an early adopter. Bitcoin itself is less of a pyramid scheme than gold. This is because even when the price stops to rise (or even when it collapses) you can use it to easily transfer value across the world.
- Nursie 13y ago
- laichzeit0 13y agoThere must be a law that describes this type of comment. Something to the effect of "When any given project passes a certain inertia, someone will invariably comment that 'it would be nice/better if XXX could be used to help the less fortunate on this planet'". We can start applying this law to things like String Theory, cures for Male Pattern Baldness and whatever else doesn't directly benefit some 3rd world shithole. (P.S. I live in a 3rd world shithole :)
- Nursie 13y agoRight, except the bitcoin stuff is essentially make-work to shore up the built in 50% attack/weakness in the bitcoin system. It would be nice to have a crypto-currency that didn't rely on this constant thrashing.
- vbuterin 13y agoNot nearly optimal, but this is a start: http://bitcoinmagazine.com/5635/primecoin-the-cryptocurrency-whose-mining-is-actually-useful/ http://bitcoinmagazine.com/5635/primecoin-the-cryptocurrency...
- nkuttler 13y agoYou assume that energy that isn't used for the network would automagically go to "less fortunate" people. It wouldn't. Power lines don't appear out of thin air, neither do governments who provide a stable environment for them to be built in.
- pfortuny 13y agoAnd how does your browsing HN help the less fortunate? Where is the limit between "good reading" and waste of time?
- mikeash 13y agoNo, see, this is something that applies only to other people.
- drcode 13y agoWell, you're in luck, because bitcoin has the potential to do that.
- TallGuyShort 13y agoSo how much of your income are you donating to the poor?