The problem with Bitcoin miners
It blows my mind how well-known all the problems there are with crypto and yet it&#x27;s become so huge <i>while solving virtually no problem other than avoiding laws about the movement of money and capital</i>.<p>The Bitcoin network in particular uses more electricty than Argentina. Defenders will point out that it&#x27;s majority renewable. That&#x27;s intellectually dishonest because Bitcoin is simply chasing cheap power and hydro power is among the cheapest. Bitcoin miners will happily use coal if it&#x27;s sufficiently cheap. Also, use of certain renewables comes at the expense of other people. In the Hudson Valley, miners have raised the electricty prices for other residents in those towns.<p>Bitcoins transactions consume an enormous amount of electricity.<p>Defenders will also claim we&#x27;ll move to Proof of Stake (&quot;PoS&quot;) over Proof of Waste but this too is a myth. For one, Bitcoin&#x27;s massive computational and electricity waste is key to defending the network. I don&#x27;t know what happens when we run out of coins to mine. Also, if it&#x27;s as simple as that, why haven&#x27;t we simply moved to PoS for everything?<p>PoS ultimately is a rich-gets-richer scenario is why. It&#x27;s really no different to the Luna anchor stakers getting 20% returns at the expense of everyone else who comes along later.<p>And for all of this waste we get what? Transactions that can only be guaranteed if they&#x27;re entirely contained within the network because as soon as you want to include something outside of that (eg converting crypto to or from cash) you&#x27;ve just added the same trust issue that is intrinsic to every traditional financial transaction.<p>And what fuels this continued mass delusion is the fabric of American beliefs that every American is just a temporarily embarassed millionaire [1].<p>[1]; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;quotes&#x2F;328134-john-steinbeck-once-said-that-socialism-never-took-root-in" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;quotes&#x2F;328134-john-steinbeck-once-...</a>