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Over 2 percent of the US’s electricity generation now goes to bitcoin
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024
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If, if, if! But it hasn't. So there's still no real reason to use Bitcoin today. I'm glad the concept and ecosystem exists, it might come in handy, but there's a shit ton of resources going to it, today so what is its social benefit today? Again I'm fine with Bitcoin existing, but if the only use case it's being used for right now is illegal goods and market speculation, how does it warrant the insane amount of resources it sucks up today? If we end up needing it in the future we can ramp it up, but right now I think there's way too much resources being sucked up by it for not enough societal benefit.
"Sure Ill be glad to vaccinate if I get covid. If, if, if! But I dont have it now! Theres no real reason to vaccinate now, I dont need it!"
The point of a precaution is to do it before the concerned event happens. And when multiple countries have politicians discussing cashless, and with actual businesses beginning to stop taking cash in favor of card, the advent of the retiring of physical money is an actual event that is visible on the horizon.
You will need the existence of fully finished infrastructure for digital cash before you can safely use it. We. Do. Not. Have. That. Infrastructure. If cash is killed next year? Youre fucked. We need to figure that out before we need it to be online and usable.
And while no, bitcoin specifically is likely not the answer, it is the reason why people are hunting for a better solution.
The production of Bitcoin right now is like creating billions of vaccines that have a 1 year expiration date, or getting 10 vaccines now when you're only supposed to have one. You can develop software without doing it so inefficiently that we're spending a ridiculous amount of energy in the interim. Having more mining now doesn't make the protocol better for later. I don't see how the resources going to it now are not ridiculously inefficiently used.