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Comment by abootstrapper | Hacker News Reader

I’m sure I’ll get buried for this, but it’s a shame that as a whole, we’ve spent billions of dollars, created tons of carbon, and wasted untold man hours on this blockchain and digital coin fad. At least nobody can say the concept wasn’t fully explored.

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It was more useful than gaming.

Not sure if this is a joke or not, but the parallel is not even close.

I actually think he might be right, so I'd like to hear more from your side of things.

As far as I'm concerned, gaming is a drain on human productivity, often a drain on long term happiness, and provides little economic utility.

I mean, video games are about as useful as a summer swim, a piece of music, fine art, and fictional literature. Sometimes they’re also educational.

I think the discussion was about energy consumption.

I'm definitely doing less damage to the environment and my financial security if I spend my commute playing games on my phone than if I were to spend that time making transactions on a blockchain. Which is to say I don't think there's actually any sensible comparison that can be made here.

What is your source for gaming being a drain on happiness? I can only find research that says the opposite.

Also I’m certain gaming would have created more economic opportunity than it would have destroyed via lower productivity

Hah! I think that's debatable, but I won't. :)

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