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I have far too shallow an understanding of cryptocurrencies, but the (apparent) extraordinary inefficiency of the process was the first thing that struck me - I assumed I was missing something, but... twitter.com/fabianacecin/s

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I feel like it's worth mentioning that virtually every system the economy relies on, incl. fiat, produces insane amounts of waste. I'm old enough to remember environmentalists complaining about cash, and I'm not particularly old.

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It's also a slightly disingenuous choice, IMO, to look just at the costs associated with production and such. Lefties generally seem to accept that the externalities of the fiscal system look like millions of deaths, crushing of wages etc.

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(not saying bitcoin would be some sort of ideal replacement - just that these arguments tend to be paper thin)

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That's an interesting perspective; presumably the energy use of thousands of armoured vans moving cash about every day would mine a lot of Bitcoin.

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I am currently very unclear about the amount of energy actually in use to power cryptocurrencies - or whether there are more efficient models for digital currencies.

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Me neither. But I don't have to have an exact figure. When wars are fought to peg intl. trade to USD, it's clear fiat is currently worse.

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I don't think this is a problem cryptocurrency can actually solve, but it has to be part of any honest argument bout costs IMO.

10:23 AM · Jan 24, 2019Twitter Web App

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Is there any reason to think that wars *wouldn't* be fought over/to maintain the value of cryptocurrencies?

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From what leashless has been saying China already has a lot of influence, presumably because they can build and power as much hardware as they want for this stuff. A system of currency that inherently favours countries that are willing to ignore environmental concerns seems bad.