• Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee
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    16 days ago

    Bitcoin is NOT based on thin air.

    It’s based on wasting loads of electricity.

    • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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      16 days ago

      How do you figure? A completely digital irreversible payment system is worth a lot in today’s day and age? Also, I just read an article that was talking about a small town near the Arctic Circle that was heating their city hall building and the stuff with mining instead of oil boilers. Plus, it could replace the global banking system with all of its buildings and employees shuttling back and forth to work, etc. And it’s also less energy intensive than heavy industrial processes that use high temperature heat, such as glass making. Also, it allows for new electricity sites to be made over capacity in order to grow with a local area and still have a buyer willing to take as much electricity as possible until it’s needed by somebody else. And then they can just easily shut off temporarily.

      Overall, mining is probably more of a net positive than a net negative.

      • pandapoo@sh.itjust.works
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        16 days ago

        This has to be a joke right? Satire?

        I mean, it’s one thing to be a long on Bitcoin, or even just see it’s value as a niche commodity.

        But suggesting Bitcoin mining is an energy efficient way to heat buildings, is capable of replacing global finance, or that it creates more tangible benefits than artisanal glass blowers…?

        You know what I can do with a artisanal piece of glass? Hold it, use it, own it.

        You know what I can do with Bitcoin? Speculate that if I hold on to it long enough, I can convert it to actual currency that can actually be used as a currency.

        Unlike BTC, which is just a speculative commodity, with no tangible assets to provide an actual floor.

        The floor on crypto is zero. If I buy a bunch of gold right now, even if the price crashes, I still have a bunch of gold.

        • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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          16 days ago

          I think that’s what you’re missing. Crypto is a currency. It is meant to be used in transactions for buying a car or buying a house or buying groceries or buying a pet or buying a computer. It is a currency and is used as such. To be fair, Bitcoin has failed as a currency because it’s traceable, which is bad for a currency, and it can’t do enough transactions per second without extremely high fees. And those two things together have caused it to fail as a currency. Monero, on the other hand, does work as a currency, because it’s not traceable. So no, not satire at all.

          • pandapoo@sh.itjust.works
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            15 days ago

            Yes, Monero fills a niche, and it’s the closest crypto asset to resemble a currency.

            However, your previous post talked about replacing finance with Bitcoin. Even if we pretend you were talking about Monero, that just means you have a one world currency, and no one at the helm who can guide monetary policy for any one country.

            You shouldn’t need a degree in finance or economics to understand how disastrous that would be, especially for smaller and poorer countries.

            So, Bitcoin and the rest of crypto are all commodities, not currencies. They are commodities with a high environmental cost, and a floor of zero because they have no tangible assets to speak of.

            Monero can fill a niche, and I’m actually happy about that because I like Monero and the principles behind the project. Unless of course you believe that includes delusions of grandeur and replacing all world currency and financial systems, with the magic of the “just the right crypto”.