This is the most comprehensive analysis yet of Bitcoin’s impact on the environment and energy system in the US!
"The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin"
#bitcoin #btc
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/business/bitcoin-mining-electricity-pollution.html
An ax I grind:
We need to be clear that this isn't about Bitcoin but rather what people are willing to pay in order to acquire Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin system itself can run on a car battery.
People decide to compete with each other to get more of it, buying extra electricity to trade for a chance to acquire it.
The real takeaway is that Bitcoin is highly valued, enough that people are willing to bid up the price like this. We shouldn't be so much yelling about the price but rather thinking about what's happening with the world so that #Bitcoin is so valuable in the first place.
People trading money for electricity for Bitcoin really says we should be rethinking the apparently less valuable money.
No doubt for some it's all about greed, perhaps the majority even, but not me. For me, it's more about fear, fear that the dollar will continue to depreciate. I don't need to get rich, I just don't want to get poorer and poorer, even while I'm working. Bitcoin, in the long run, IMO, is a safer store of wealth than the dollar or any other fiat currency.
But I do also use it. I buy products online with it. Buy low, spend when it's higher, automatic discount.
Well, agreed, it's value is based on perception, just as the value of the USD is. What is backing up our 31 trillion dollars in debt?
Americans seem to believe that the USD could never fail. It is failing, that's my point, just slowly.
It's all just perception, supply, and use. A good currency is useful and somewhat scarce. If it's useful and scarce, it has value. The USD is useful, but it's losing scarcity. At some point, it will be worth more as fuel.
@volkris raises a good question with, "what’s happening with the world so that #Bitcoin is so valuable in the first place."
What's happening is that our currencies are, if not collapsing, losing value so fast you can almost watch prices go up in the grocery or on your favorite online housing site as you're shopping.
Clearly, most of us all getting poorer very quickly. That's what's happening.
They were dumb to buy high. I never do. But if they're smarter now, they'll just hold it. It will go over 60, quite possibly in the next few months.
But that's just the greed of wanting security and being willing to trade other things to get it :)
Greed here is just the term for wanting to be better off, and that's just plain natural, reasonable, rational.
It's just a way of describing that rational want using a word with some judgmental baggage attached, which isn't particularly helpful.
So, many people trade currency for electricity for Bitcoin because they value the security of the cryptocurrency. That's perfectly rational.
My point: don't blame the crypto for the electricity. Blame the currency for failing to provide security such that a person would trade it for BTC.
Well put. If the USD was going UP in value, if it were getting STRONGER, I would hodl IT. But it's not. It's losing value while BTC is increasing in value against the USD.
Just look at the sequence of LOWS on BTC, not the highs. Those peaks are misleading. Look at how low it goes after peaking. Those lows continue to gain. It's not greed to want to maintain as much wealth that you've worked for as possible.
Granted, some black swan event could destroy BTC. Yes, that is possible. It could also do the same to any currency. Nothing is certain.
@volkris at the end of the day this is about greed. Yeah, that's for sure