<story><title>When Bitcoin miners take over a town (2018)</title><url>https://www.politico.eu/article/this-is-what-happens-when-bitcoin-miners-take-over-your-town/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>TheBlight</author><text>&amp;gt;The thing is... Bitcoin solves a problem for almost nobody. It&amp;#x27;s almost entirely a speculative bubble. Citizens of stable countries are almost entirely better off with traditional currencies.&lt;p&gt;Tell that to citizens of countries who have experienced hyperinflation and whose currencies became worthless almost overnight.&lt;p&gt;There is a reason every asset is going up right now. Real estate, stocks, commodities, and crypto. More money is being printed this year than ever before. The financial media and the fed can claim minimal inflation but the markets are exposing that claim as dubious.</text></item><item><author>cletus</author><text>I am beginning to wonder if energy is what will eventually doom Bitcoin. Currently, Bitcoin consumes more energy than Argentina [1].&lt;p&gt;Another article suggests the carbon footprint of Bitcoin is equivalent to New Zealand [2].&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not just the cost of mining new coins (which will ultimately end) but the cost of maintaining the network. The more valuable the collective Bitcoins are, the more energy you need to spend defending it against 51% attacks.&lt;p&gt;To the apologists claiming there&amp;#x27;s no other good use for that energy, it&amp;#x27;s not simple. Using too much electricity can raise the price that everybody pays [3].&lt;p&gt;Miners will keep chasing cheap power but I expect, much like ArbBnB, municipalities, states and even countries will increasingly clamp down on it.&lt;p&gt;The thing is... Bitcoin solves a problem for almost nobody. It&amp;#x27;s almost entirely a speculative bubble. Citizens of stable countries are almost entirely better off with traditional currencies. Try and see ordinary people deal with a Bitcoin wallet and discover there&amp;#x27;s no recourse if a vulnerability in their computer means the contents are irreversibly stolen.&lt;p&gt;I realize there are corner cases (eg sending money to and from Venezuela). There&amp;#x27;s also a lot of illegal use cases.&lt;p&gt;Thing is, blockchains aren&amp;#x27;t really as immutable as pundits suggest. Bitcoin and Ethereum have had forks.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;technology-56012952#:~:text=Cambridge%20researchers%20say%20it%20consumes,Bitcoin%20undermines%20its%20environmental%20image&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;technology-56012952#:~:text=Cambrid...&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;[2]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;bitcoin-btc-surge-renews-worries-about-its-massive-carbon-footprint.html#:~:text=Bitcoin%20has%20a%20carbon%20footprint,Netherlands%2C%20Cambridge%20University%20researchers%20say&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;bitcoin-btc-surge-renews-wor...&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;[3]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pbs.org&amp;#x2F;newshour&amp;#x2F;show&amp;#x2F;cheap-power-drew-bitcoin-miners-to-this-small-city-then-came-the-backlash&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pbs.org&amp;#x2F;newshour&amp;#x2F;show&amp;#x2F;cheap-power-drew-bitcoin-m...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mtalantikite</author><text>&amp;gt; Tell that to citizens of countries who have experienced hyperinflation and whose currencies became worthless almost overnight.&lt;p&gt;I don’t think any of my family in Algeria are using Bitcoin, and same for my wife’s family in Bangladesh. In Algeria at least, generally you’ll go to a hawala money changer who gives you better rates than the banks and exchange your local currency into Euros. If you need to send money abroad you use the same old Islamic hawala system to send it to France or wherever else.&lt;p&gt;There will probably be some useful things built on top of blockchains, and I don’t think crypto has zero value, but I don’t think it’s going to reasonably fix a situation of a failing state.</text></comment>
<story><title>When Bitcoin miners take over a town (2018)</title><url>https://www.politico.eu/article/this-is-what-happens-when-bitcoin-miners-take-over-your-town/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>TheBlight</author><text>&amp;gt;The thing is... Bitcoin solves a problem for almost nobody. It&amp;#x27;s almost entirely a speculative bubble. Citizens of stable countries are almost entirely better off with traditional currencies.&lt;p&gt;Tell that to citizens of countries who have experienced hyperinflation and whose currencies became worthless almost overnight.&lt;p&gt;There is a reason every asset is going up right now. Real estate, stocks, commodities, and crypto. More money is being printed this year than ever before. The financial media and the fed can claim minimal inflation but the markets are exposing that claim as dubious.</text></item><item><author>cletus</author><text>I am beginning to wonder if energy is what will eventually doom Bitcoin. Currently, Bitcoin consumes more energy than Argentina [1].&lt;p&gt;Another article suggests the carbon footprint of Bitcoin is equivalent to New Zealand [2].&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not just the cost of mining new coins (which will ultimately end) but the cost of maintaining the network. The more valuable the collective Bitcoins are, the more energy you need to spend defending it against 51% attacks.&lt;p&gt;To the apologists claiming there&amp;#x27;s no other good use for that energy, it&amp;#x27;s not simple. Using too much electricity can raise the price that everybody pays [3].&lt;p&gt;Miners will keep chasing cheap power but I expect, much like ArbBnB, municipalities, states and even countries will increasingly clamp down on it.&lt;p&gt;The thing is... Bitcoin solves a problem for almost nobody. It&amp;#x27;s almost entirely a speculative bubble. Citizens of stable countries are almost entirely better off with traditional currencies. Try and see ordinary people deal with a Bitcoin wallet and discover there&amp;#x27;s no recourse if a vulnerability in their computer means the contents are irreversibly stolen.&lt;p&gt;I realize there are corner cases (eg sending money to and from Venezuela). There&amp;#x27;s also a lot of illegal use cases.&lt;p&gt;Thing is, blockchains aren&amp;#x27;t really as immutable as pundits suggest. Bitcoin and Ethereum have had forks.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;technology-56012952#:~:text=Cambridge%20researchers%20say%20it%20consumes,Bitcoin%20undermines%20its%20environmental%20image&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;technology-56012952#:~:text=Cambrid...&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;[2]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;bitcoin-btc-surge-renews-worries-about-its-massive-carbon-footprint.html#:~:text=Bitcoin%20has%20a%20carbon%20footprint,Netherlands%2C%20Cambridge%20University%20researchers%20say&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;bitcoin-btc-surge-renews-wor...&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;[3]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pbs.org&amp;#x2F;newshour&amp;#x2F;show&amp;#x2F;cheap-power-drew-bitcoin-miners-to-this-small-city-then-came-the-backlash&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pbs.org&amp;#x2F;newshour&amp;#x2F;show&amp;#x2F;cheap-power-drew-bitcoin-m...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JumpCrisscross</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Tell that to citizens of countries who have experienced hyperinflation and whose currencies became worthless almost overnight&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;At best, this argument turns Bitcoin into a massive subsidy by stable countries of unstable ones. A subsidy paid for in the form of higher energy prices, environmental damage and opportunity cost.</text></comment>