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Bitcoin miners are losing $19,000 on every BTC produced as difficulty drops 7.8% (www.coindesk.com)
submitted 5 months ago by [M, B] to c/hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
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[–] 1 point 5 months ago (14 children)

Value is only what people agree to. State mandated currency is no more real than any other currency.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (13 children)

    Cool, so I can head down to the grocery store and use it?

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (12 children)

    Can you use us dollars in a grocery store in the eu? Does that mean the dollar has no value?

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (11 children)

    I'm pointing out that while global society has already agreed on the value of goverent issued currencies, they already function as one.

    At best crypto has two use cases:

    • illegal activities
    • gambling

    That is it. I can't use it as Any sort of real currency because the vast majority of people/enterprises don't recognize it. For something to be a real currency it must be usable as such.

    What we have is pretend money that destroys the environment for no real reason.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    Bitcoin uses a public ledger making it a terrible choice for crimes. While not everyone wants to directly accept bitcoin there are exchanges throughout the world happy to exchange it for local currency. Bitcoin is not backed by violence like state currencies. It takes time for a new form of value to gain widespread acceptance.

    Gold was used as a currency for thousands of years but you can’t use it at a local grocery store either.

    Bitcoin’s value is backed by math and computers and that is somehow worse than the energy and violence used by governments?

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    The public ledger is irrelevant. I don’t need any credentials to sign up for 1 or 1k accounts. Yes it can be tracked, but someone with a modicum of skill could make it extremely difficult.

    Bitcoin is not backed by violence like state currencies.

    Backed by, no, used by, absolutely.

    Gold was used as a currency for thousands of years but you can’t use it at a local grocery store either.

    That is largely irrelevant. Like crypto, I can’t take it to the grocery store. It no longer functions as a currency. That is cool, but don’t conflate it.

    Bitcoin’s value is backed by math and computers and that is somehow worse than the energy and violence used by governments?

    My dude, don’t pretend computing and math are magic. We are breaking some fucking hashes. Your perception of value of a broken hash doesn’t translate into actual utility.

    than the energy and violence used by governments?

    Please pass me a dose of your soma.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    You are arguing in favor of government control of money and arguing I’m high? Ok buddy. Sure thing.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (2 children)

    It has utility. Something that crypto currently lacks.

    My dude, you were literally whispering math and compute as though they are magic words.

    The algorithms aren't even terribly interesting.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

    A hash function is still math independent of your interest. Bitcoin is the first currency that has self emerged without being mandated by the state. Feel free to ignore it.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    It is a boring application of existing hash functions to create a really inefficient data structure. It is impractical for just about a everything including currency, and if crypto took off the hard limits on transactions (iirc) would make its use quite difficult.

    Bitcoin is the first currency

    I live in an objective universe that I have relatively little control over. My employer won't pay me in it, and I can't go down to the supermarket and buy a loaf of bread with it to feed my family. No one can compel you to use any particular words, but there really isn't a basis for me to think of it as an actual currency beyond being a novelty.

    The spices in my cabinet would have functioned as more of a currency in our shared history than what crypto could ever accomplish, but I don't expect my employer to give me sage, either.

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  • [–] -1 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    Bitcoin runs on electricity, not internal combustion engines. Bitcoin’s use of energy is no more or less damaging to the environment than any other electricity user in the same area.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (3 children)

    Cool, cool. Which of my appliances requires 535.6 megawatt-hours to run? I mean, my house is about 10, so I may be missing something.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Again your comments don’t actually address the argument at hand.

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