Bitcoin the plot ...
A great invention for both big oil and any martians looking to invade.
Obviously the martians would prefer us to sprout two sets of fins.
Conspicuous energy consumption is a feature of the Bitcoin model, rather than a flaw, according to a crypto-miner defending the power-guzzling activity. Zach Bradford, chief executive of publicly traded Bitcoin miner CleanSpark, waded into the debate sparked by the Ethereum Merge, the shift from proof of work to proof of stake …
Unfortunately, that green electricity in Georgia seems to be predominantly produced from fossil fuels (see: link to US energy information administration): some 50% natural gas and 15% coal. Bitcoin proponents sound more and more like tobacco admen in the late 90s: they know their game is up, but they are committed to squeeze that lemon dry while there remains a gullible audience.
"and drop any messages they wished"
As long as they also dropped every message after it, and carried on building their own blockchain at a slightly faster rate than the "legitimate" one. Due to the way each is signed, you can't just remove one out of the middle.
Not pro-blockchain by any stretch, but I'm pro-facts and would prefer it if the criticisms (and benefits) of the technology were all genuine
Funny, because while it is both power efficient and cheap to do so, you are placing blind faith in the exchange to actually honor the trades. You literally have zero protection from a technical level.
(the funny part is that from Mt Gox, probably the first real exchange rug pull, onward the exchanges have been the point of the largest fraud.)
It really does.
Lottery, trust fund babies, being born in wealthy countries, premium bonds, good local schools, natural intelligence, having good parents
It's not what reality should be but anyone who tells you they got rich off hard work, and hard work alone is either a liar or delusional. Its all down to luck of the draw.
Bradford reckons that everyone will be using BitCoin in the Metaverse, when the fateful day in 2140 rolls around.
At which point, with the last coin mined, there is no longer any incentive to continue mining and the entire BTC blockchain simply - stops. Panic envelops the Metaverse, dog avatars living with cat avatars. One brave hero pulls off his visor and ventures out to investigate, daring himself to leave the room he has lived in for so long. There is a dramatic twist when he is confused by the sounds echoing through the Marabar Caves.
I will never be in the "metaverse" thingie, not even going to try the goggles. Instead I will amuse myself going from pod to pod switching various tubes around.
When you're in your virtual world, partying like it's 2099, but you start having cramps and then everything smells like shit, smile, for you've just had a close encounter with MV Lipvig!
Well, it could be.
If you'd bought Bitcoin when they were a few dollars each (maybe less, they were a couple of hundred when I first looked) then even at the currently depressed price of approximately $20,000 you are in a position to pay your energy bills. For the next couple of years, at least.
-A.
Fair enough.
But the actual end of Bitcoin et al happens about 100-120 years before that, as it's asymptotic. As the rate at which the coins are assigned drops, 'mining' becomes more transparently a broken lottery - whomsoever convinces the others that they won, wins.
As the wins space out further (it's not infinitely subdivided) groups drop out of 'mining'. The transaction rate falls, a very small group controls all transaction processing, nobody else can cash out and suddenly, poof!
The design is fundamentally unusable as a currency. Anyone saying otherwise either doesn't understand any of the first principles of currencies or economics, or fraudulent.