The beautiful machines that mine Bitcoin
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I cannot believe there isn't a better way to create wealth, than to consume some enormous carbon footprint. I'm very, very disappointed in the way way the whole 'bitcoin' fiasco has played out.
Independently of whether Bitcoin succeeds or not, we can make the very same argument concerning game servers, TV stations, the Facebook (well, the most part of Internet), or even pleasure journeys in cars or planes. Everything "wastes" energy (heck, idle people are _wasting_ energy too!).
Just because _you_ are not profiting from it _right now_ it does not mean it is a 'fiasco' nor "the most egregious wastes of planetary resources conceived by man".
Bitcoin provides a decentralized alternative (or complement) to the current financial system. It is mathematically and economically (well, this last part is debatable) sound. Maybe it works, maybe not, but if you are right, it will be for the wrong reasons.
Bitcoin 'miners' hum away in a room, getting hot and consuming ergs and producing nothing but imaginary points. Which could have been produced by getting a job or trusting a federal reserve or something - anything but this enormous trust theatre just to keep people out of the loop.