Cryptocurrencies need to get their shit together. It consumes 0.5% of the world's energy today, and consumes 20% more month over month. May 2018: 1/200. Dec 2020: 200/200. Cryptocurrencies need to be banned today. Not tomorrow. Not in a year. Today.https://grist.org/article/bitcoins-energy-use-got-studied-and-you-libertarian-nerds-look-even-worse-than-usual/amp …
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Replying to @yoshuawuyts
Is it fundamental to the nature of bitcoin (or cryptowhatnot, more generally) that it's calibrated to require "about this much computing power" so that it's not either to easy or too difficult? Does it scale 1:1 with the volume of transactions?
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Replying to @rickyreusser
Not sure about the details, but here's some facts that might resemble an answer: - hashes become increasingly more expensive to brute force - spending more time breaking hashes increases your chance of reward - energy consumption scales 1:1 with time spent breaking hashes
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Replying to @yoshuawuyts
I hate when they say on the radio that bitcoin mining is "solving really difficult math problems". Like if I called BS with too much confidence, I'd expect the response, "Do you even know how bitcoin works?" To which, of course, I'd have to respond: "Well, only sorta."
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Replying to @rickyreusser @yoshuawuyts
Which is to say, it's opaque enough that I haven't yet found a source I can trust as having sufficient knowlege and lack of agenda that'd enable me to agree that—yeah—the explosion in power usage seems pretty unredeemable and perhaps even in need of intervention.
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I think it's important to trade benefits vs costs with any technology. There's plenty of downsides to society caused by Bitcoin that can be observed today. I'm unsure about the benefits to society it provides. Lots of promises though. But anything tangible? Haven't seen it.
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