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This kind of project speaks to a major strength of Bitcoin. The transparency that is built in to the Bitcoin protocol allows us to actually understand (albeit t
by antiics 12y ago
This kind of project speaks to a major strength of Bitcoin. The transparency that is built in to the Bitcoin protocol allows us to actually understand (albeit through rough estimation at this point) the complete resource cost of the network.
This transparency allows us (humanity) to actually have discussions on how we can go about managing our resources in the 21st century.
What is the total CO2 cost of <Large Payment Processor X>? No one knows - the network is opaque since that kind of information is a competitive advantage. Which is fine, the core competency of the payment processor isn't understanding their CO2 footprint.
However, from a policy maker point of view, a system where total resource cost is verifiable by a third party audit makes for a compelling argument in favour of the open network.
- Lerc 12y agoIt's an odd thing but transparency of this sort often causes a bias in criticism because the problems are apparent. Wikipedia has a similar issue, with the perennial comments about the information being unreliable. People interpret a known level of unreliability as more unreliable. Similarly with bitcoin, a known cost is assumed to be more than a hidden cost.