Can governments not step in and put an end to the cryptocurrency madness?

[Efour]

The fact that you can literally use it as a currency makes it a useable currency.

the fact that a very shrewd retailer will gladly relieve you of your bedroom mined bitcoin for a long term punt on it being valued higher is more like bartering.

Can you imagine how much OCUK are laughing now at the kids that bought 980GTXs and alike with their BTCs?

Do the OCUK baskets constantly update their bitcoin prices to reflect?

or can i buy a gfx card for 500 quid b4 lunch and 900 b4 dinner?

genuinely interested

There's no way they would cover a vast loss when a coin crashes in price, so i assume they hedge themself against it going up daily too?

 

[p1RATE]

@Efour

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1120696327560675329

 

[Pho]

It's always the old boomers moaning about progressive changes

(yes I know they're not boomers)

 

[Efour]

Yeah i know, times change , but decimalisation wasn't/isn't quite the same nonsense im blathering about.

anyway i've made my uniformed opinion overly clear.

 

[touch]

the fact that a very shrewd retailer will gladly relieve you of your bedroom mined bitcoin for a long term punt on it being valued higher is more like bartering.

It's nothing to do with potential future value. It has a current value so it can be exchanged for goods of a similar value at that retailer. I'd guess that most convert back into local currency and don't keep them in BTC for long periods.
In the same way that not everyone who owns some GBP is holding them in the hope that they increase in value, not everyone who owns some BTC has them as a future investment.
There are people who do this - for both GBP and BTC.

Do the OCUK baskets constantly update their bitcoin prices to reflect?
or can i buy a gfx card for 500 quid b4 lunch and 900 b4 dinner?
genuinely interested

I've no idea, I didn't know OCUK accept bitcoin. I'd expect that anyone who accepts payments in any currency other than their local currency would update this frequently. I've bought a few bikes from German retailers before and I know that they do.

 

[Devrij]

I sold my 2 BTC for £400 way back after also paying of 4x 290s, thinking I'd done great! Now I try not to think about the deposit I could have had on a nice house.

 

[clv101]

Don't agree with OP but it would have been better if the equations done for bitcoin were actually something meaningful like protein folding so some good was also being done at the same time.

Or, flip it on it's head. What if the energy/heat was used for something meaningful. That 3kW immersion heater in your hotwater tank? Why isn't it a 3kW compute unit giving you over 1000 Mh/s - WHILE heating your water?

With the 'Internet of Things', can't every kettle become a 3kW compute unit?

 

[200sols]

Can you imagine how much OCUK are laughing now at the kids that bought 980GTXs and alike with their BTCs?

I cant imagine that because they most likely used a payment processor and wouldn't have held any bitcoin.

Do the OCUK baskets constantly update their bitcoin prices to reflect?

No, the payment is processed at current exchange rates like buying something in a foreign currency. The exchange rate at the time is the one used and the vendor gets paid in their local currency.

 

[m@rty]

I sold my 2 BTC for £400 way back after also paying of 4x 290s, thinking I'd done great! Now I try not to think about the deposit I could have had on a nice house.

Ouchies

 

[mattx2]

Or, flip it on it's head. What if the energy/heat was used for something meaningful. That 3kW immersion heater in your hotwater tank? Why isn't it a 3kW compute unit giving you over 1000 Mh/s - WHILE heating your water?

With the 'Internet of Things', can't every kettle become a 3kW compute unit?

Or something to keep your KFC warm

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1341431562999631879

 

[SquirrelMadness]

Heavy fines for anyone caught using a cryptocurrency, that should sort it.

As far as I can tell, this currency based on nothing tangible and only serves to benefit a few while causing misery for millions. It causes massive scarcity in computer equipment, uses up valuable resources when we are supposed to be conserving energy and seems to be the main currency for criminal activities such as drug deals.

So you're butthurt cos you can't get a new GFX card and ask the Gov't to step in and ban crypto because you feel that's to blame?

And the only reason we have drug dealers is because there is a demand for drugs. Who are you to deny someone's human right to drug use? Cash is the favourite currency of drug dealers because it's untraceable... and that's a great thing.

 

[The Running Man]

This is honestly my feeling on it.

I could have purchased 10K of Bitcoin and have a 100K now.
But at what point am I actually using it as a currency?

I mean, obviously I'd be quids in had I done that lol.

You could have purchased 10k of telsa a year ago and have 70k now.

At least its a real company with prospects..

 

[FoxEye]

Can see the environmental impact of mining becoming a factor soon, doesn't mining already account for more electricity use than some small countries?

I have no issue with cryptocurrency in principle and it has proved useful for me many times.

Butterflies can't make you rich, but crypto can.

Nobody cares about the stupid en-vi-ron-ment.


/s

Sadly this is probably close to the truth of many people's thinking.

It doesn't matter that crypto is literally using as much energy as it can and that the whole thing is designed to be "better" when using maximum energy.

Or that the "useful work" does not increase with energy used, mere the "security" of crypto increases with energy used.

There is literally no concept of "efficiency" in crypto. The system wants to use as much energy and resources (ie GPUs) as humanity can produce.

 

[Mysterae_]

BTC is becoming less of a currency and more of a store of value.

A bit like gold except far more practical:
- you can store huge amounts of BTC on a tiny hardware wallet - how and where would you store your gold stash?
- you can exchange BTC near instantly for fiat, whereas you'd better get friendly with your local pawnshop to punt your gold or would you like Hermes to deliver it to the buyer?
- you can transfer BTC worldwide as above, whereas gold isn't so easy if you own it physically.
- you can actually buy some things with BTC (a fad really) but I don't think Aldi accept gold as payment yet. Or will, ever.

It's funny reading the comments about being a waste of energy. Think about all the energy used to mine other commodities, to transport, refine, shape and store and secure them and the market trading servers worldwide. Comparing the estimated energy cost of BTC to gold (estimated annual consumption):

BTC - 77.78 TWh
Gold - 150 TWh (mining and production alone)

Source.

 

[FoxEye]

It's funny reading the comments about being a waste of energy. Think about all the energy used to mine other commodities, to transport, refine, shape and store and secure them and the market trading servers worldwide. Comparing the estimated energy cost of BTC to gold (estimated annual consumption):

BTC - 77.78 TWh
Gold - 150 TWh (mining and production alone)

Source.

The other things you mention have an energy cost defined as the energy required to do something tangible. Ie to transport something. To extract something.

Crypto actually increases the energy use of crypto just to balance out the number of people trying to mine it. The more people mining, the more the energy use is artificially increased.

The other things you mention can reduce their energy use by increasing efficiency.

Crypto will never decrease energy use - because more energy use is "better" than less energy use! More energy use means more secure!

Thus crypto only ever wants to increase its energy and resource use. And there is NO limit!

 

[englishpremier]

I think you should research what cryptocurrency is and why it's useful. It also gets taxed, so it's not necessarily as dark as you seem to think it is.

I don't see it as dark, threatening or necessary enabling criminal activities, but I also don't see it as particular useful to modern societies. In other places sure, but in modern societies not so much.

Then again I'm also not impressed by blockchain and especially the Bitcoin ledger. It's just huge now.

 

[Mysterae_]

The other things you mention have an energy cost defined as the energy required to do something tangible. Ie to transport something. To extract something.

Crypto actually increases the energy use of crypto just to balance out the number of people trying to mine it. The more people mining, the more the energy use is artificially increased.

The other things you mention can reduce their energy use by increasing efficiency.

Crypto will never decrease energy use - because more energy use is "better" than less energy use! More energy use means more secure!

Thus crypto only ever wants to increase its energy and resource use. And there is NO limit!

Yes, but the more people that want gold (and other stuff that consume it) the increase in energy and enviro impact to provide it as well. If the only cost to producing BTC is power (it isn't I know) then smart production of electricity (excess renewables as per the article) can actually make it efficient for it's purpose.

 

[StriderX]

I find the whole situation rather embarrassing (Obviously, if I had the fortune to have invested a decade ago, i'm sure that i'd have a conveniently different 'opinion'), currencies currently take their value from the strength of their market economies and Bitcoin seems to just take it's value from nauseating boosterism.

The banks will take all the value out of blockchain that they can get and then Bitcoin will invariably crash into the ground.

 

[norm]

How secure is Bitcoin long term though really, with the advent of quantum computing I can envisage some attempts by nefarious individuals to sabotage the blockchain, or some other exploit will be found.

Also with the likelihood of cyber warfare becoming an ever increasing prospect in any new world conflict, it could render cryptocurrencies useless as well, with people reverting back to gold.

 

[DeliciousStorage]

How secure is Bitcoin long term though really, with the advent of quantum computing I can envisage some attempts by nefarious individuals to sabotage the blockchain, or some other exploit will be found.

Also with the likelihood of cyber warfare becoming an ever increasing prospect in any new world conflict, it could render cryptocurrencies useless as well, with people reverting back to gold.

It's not an issue, Bitcoin would be updated (forked) for for post-quantum encryption.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerh...l-not-break-cryptocurrencies/?sh=fa66527167b5