Ok, Bitcoin bad. What about video games? Netflix? Porn?
The very idea of sorting energy use like that is a very slippery slope. We have markets for a reason. They help us determine how the aggregated society values one or another thing without relying on value judgment.
As other have pointed out, Bitcoin relies on a larger and larger usage of energy by design. You could to a more energy-efficient Netflix, but you cannot do a more energy-efficient Bitcoin.
It's actually the opposite: its energy usage shrinks and shrinks, by design. Every 210,000 blocks (~4 years), the block reward (mining subsidy) drops in half. At the limit, it approaches zero, and the network can only afford to spend as much on energy as users pay in transaction fees.
Admittedly, "the limit" is quite a few years off, and there's a big subsidy still. I'm surprised we haven't seen taxing authorities go after block rewards specifically - they're why miners are currently willing to spend 10~20x on energy vs what users pay them for transactions.
(Ideally, this would be a global tax and not too high, since reducing mining too much would compromise security)
The closest you might come is something like road traffic where the situation gets asymptomatically worse as more people start driving, but even that is much better than Bitcoin because people aren’t just driving because they can and will reduce their driving when traffic is unpleasant. Bitcoin is somewhat uniquely poorly-architected in a way which deters adoption but has also become a quasi-religious point preventing the design from being fixed.
This is only the beginning of the outrage over Bitcoin, wait until it does another 10x gain in value and fiat currency failures grow worldwide. The next few decades will require a lot of popcorn to watch the show when calls to ban it only result in more rapid spikes in it’s value appreciating.
And Bitcoin/crypto evangelists still havent grappled with the fact that if they ever actually succeed in becoming a real rival of fiat currencies then they are going to find out what state violence looks like when they continue not complying with regulations.
Like do you really believe if Iran/North Korea/Russia converted over their entire economy to using bitcoin to escape US regulations, that you are going to be able to continue using it without any sort of reaction from the US? Or if Chinese citizens use it en masse to completely avoid government controls, that the Chinese government will just throw up their hands and say "shucks"? You can fill in that statement with any government and a group they intend to control and have the ability to exert violence on
> It takes both intellectual and emotional maturity to understand and accept the wisdom and power of free markets. God is delivering what the market wants an uncensored currency outside the control of governments. This is only the beginning of the outrage over God, wait until he does another 10x gain in value and fiat currency failures grow worldwide. The next few decades will require a lot of popcorn to watch the show when calls to ban God only result in more rapid spikes in his value appreciating.
Not really getting the cult leader vibes, sorry.
but I sure am getting some creepy authoritarian vibes from your comment. Feels like you’re itching to help hand out this violence …
I know you will smash down the doors of these disobedient Bitcoiners and seize their coins from under their pillows! or maybe bomb some mining facilities.
Good luck with that state violence. It’s obsolete.
Lol, that’s what I’m talking about with cult leader vibes. That is completely delusional
Contrast this with the digital age, where Bitcoin introduces a paradigm shift. The inefficacy of traditional state violence against digital assets is stark. The very concept of borders becomes almost anachronistic when considering the ease with which a Bitcoin wallet can be concealed and transported, unlike the gold coins of yore that families might have smuggled in loaves of bread.
The suggestion that authoritarian regimes would willingly adopt Bitcoin is where the real absurdity lies. Such governments thrive on control and suppression, the antithesis of the free-market principles Bitcoin embodies. To imagine they would facilitate their own obsolescence by embracing a decentralized currency is to fundamentally misunderstand their nature.
Your apprehension that state violence will quash Bitcoin’s rise underestimates the resilience and decentralization of digital currencies. As Bitcoin continues its trajectory, reshaping the financial landscape, it will not be the threat of violence that determines its fate but its inherent ability to provide an alternative to those governed by fiat’s limitations. Your perspective, while rooted in historical precedents of state power, may indeed lead to confusion as you witness the unfolding impact of Bitcoin and its challenge to conventional monetary systems.
I am going to use a meme to make a flippant point here, but this is what crypto enthusiasts sound like when they say theyre overcoming fiat currencies and there is nothing countries can do to stop them
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/778/145/b6f...
Yes, they're all bad. Markets are no substitute for morality. And if the market properly accounted for environmental damage, all of those uses of energy would be priced out of existence.
Our society is addicted to energy.
Are you included in this group of addicts?
I try to use this medium to share a perspective that addicts wouldn't ordinarily encounter.
It's probably not very effective, since the addiction runs so deep.