64 karma · joined December 8, 2016
- You live in a place where the "cost" of mining = Electricity + Amortized cost of mining rig.
- Someone else lives in a place where "cost" of mining = (Electricity + Amortized Blackmarket Rig Cost) - (5% Inflation per month - 30% reduction in remittance fee -etc..)
This is true and is a function of context and locale. That's the point. Opportunity cost.
- Actually Bitcoin mining is being adopted by renewable providers as very good solution to offset intermittence and wasted excess.
- Further something like Natural gas flaring is something that cannot be stored but can largely routed through mining setups. Which is being adopted at scale.
Nope, not where Electricity is cheapest, but where it's opportunity cost is lowest. In developed nations with a stable currency this might be high, in others that don't have the privilege of printing the world's reserve to bail out bad decisions, different story. And that's what the market is reflecting.
>My understanding is that a substantial fraction of that inefficiency is things like "there's power loss in running power from a power plant 100s of miles away" or "converting from AC to DC power induces power loss
Precisely, most Bitcoin mines are remotely located right next to the power plants, partially for this reason.
> There's no need to invent new demand to manage existing demand.
No you need demand to bring excess supply.
- The usage of electricity in Bitcoin is a feature not a bug. It's designed to use the most democratic and ubiquitous commodity avalible. Any nation/individual can evaluate their electrical opportunity cost and at any point make the decision to dedicate resources to towards re-balancing the network without permission. This is not possible with proof of stake.
- We produce about 160,000 TWh of power, ~50,000 TWh is wasted due to inefficiencies. Bitcoin using 120 TWh (0.25% of wasted power)
- A lot of Power projects get scraped due to inconsistencies in demand. Random Ex: Texas power outages during summer peak AC usage. It's infeasible to spin up and spin down extra generators to meet spikes in demand. #Bitcoin fixes this by providing excess supply a discounted demand during normal hours that can be routed away during peak needs else where. Ditto for renewables.
- Bonus: SHA-256 did not get broken this week.
- To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.
and most poignant of all :
- Your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual, that is.
I remember the exact moment of my life when I read "Self reliance for the first time, I'll never forget that moment.
Great resource that covers a array of topics on a spectrum of levels for different audiences.
Don't be so quick to distance your self from it.
Use as currency for Bitcoin (and other coin networks) is still in it's infancy and cannot scale the way it needs to should it want to replace fiat.
The important distinction I would draw though that stores of value have historically been cumbersome to transport and liquidate, Bitcoin solves that problem in a very good way.
I feel it's important to also address this 20$ bitcoin fee meme that seems to be going around. While based in truth it is not 100% accurate.
You have the capacity to set your own txn fee on the Bitcoin network. If you don't mind waiting a couple of blocks (1-3 hours) to get your transaction confirmed , then the fees fall down to single dollars and even lower. If you're selling a bulk commodity to a distributor in another market , you don't need ecommerce style confirmation times. Same goes for transferring large sums of wealth.
With that said, things like the lightning network will resolve alot of issues with Bitcoin scaling and in my (humble) opinion this is why LTC is pumping. (Atomic swap + Transfer over LTC )
Not at the one's who are raising very valid red flags on valuation and how hot the market is becoming. In my personal opinion it is absolutely 'bubble' like behavior right now.
And i believe we both echo the same sentiment.
From our perspective yes, Crytpo's use case as currency make absolutely no sense (yet), we tap our Visa card to pay instantly with no fees and no fraud liability, hard to beat.
As a store of value however there is a very strong use case in the western world. Of the top my head, it is estimated that 10% of our GDP is in off shore havens, think about that infamous 1% moving just half of that 10% into Bitcoin ..
I digress..
If you venture your mind a little outside the borders of our empire and think about the 'unbanked' parts of our planet, entire populations whom live under poverty for the sole reason that they do not have access to the equity and efficient markets directly. If you look there, people are DYING for something like Bitcoin and other crypto's. There is absolutely no reason an African farmer to have to sell his Oranges to Europe in Euro then buy it back from there (Sell Euro to local currency) for local use.
Currency is an abstraction, an expression of a market, just like language is.
Here we tap to pay and need everyone to protect us from fraudsters, pornographers, money laundry , <insert your favorite horse man of the apolocyple here>, in other parts of the world , that far out number the western world in population, they don't care to be protected by the above because quite frankly the price they pay for that 'protection' is insanely oppressive governments that use the above to legitimize the oppression.
It is exactly in those markets where you start to see a VERY stong use case as both store of value and currency for crypto and it is exactly that market that will drive the world's demand for good UI for crypto that will eventually usher in mass adoption.
HN is truly a hub for a great set of minds in the tech community but when it comes to crypto it just amazes me how myopic opinions can be.