<div dir="ltr">I am a strong supporter of Bitcoin. Sure there are negatives, it's not all just positive. There also are risks, Bitcoin could lose all it's value. The main reason why I support it is because it's probably one of the best ways to store value. With all the crazy printing of fiat currencies all around the world, is there a good argument that any fiat currency will keep it's value? I'd really like to listen to these arguments with an open mind. I'd also like to listen to arguments why any other way to store value is significantly better than Bitcoin. <br>But, I'm not saying it's the only way to store value and I'm definitely not advocating to store all your value in Bitcoin. A portfolio where some portion, dependent on individual circumstances, is stored in Bitcoin is in my opinion very good.</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 14 Apr 2021 at 22:46, Steve Smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I don't endorse POW (proof of work) cryptocurrency and barely POS(proof<br>
of statke). Really what I might endorse is the underlying distributed<br>
ledger and potential for Smart Contracts... <br>
<br>
However- this is an interesting example of less than fully egregious<br>
bitcoin mining contexts:<br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.oceanfallsblockchain.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.oceanfallsblockchain.com</a><br>
<br>
Conservation of energy would suggest that the extraction of electrical<br>
power from flowing water, subsequent negEntropy extraction and then<br>
re-introduction of the same energy back into the flowing water (as heat)<br>
is *relatively* benign. The very fact of the hydro-dam (built there<br>
some big part of a century ago) has it's own ecological impacts<br>
(salmon, the bear who eat them, the rainforest that likes those<br>
nutrient-rich gifts the bears leave on the forest floor), but no net<br>
energy or CO2 challenges? In principle, this hydro power *could* have<br>
been sent a hundred miles or more over copper power lines (including<br>
resistive load losses) to feed our *other* power-hungry appetites? <br>
<br>
It seems like energy-flow changes are fairly localized (the energy<br>
dissipated from an unimpeded river flow would have also been converted<br>
almost exclusively to heat to be carried away in the water?<br>
<br>
What of the Entropy? Was useful negEntropy somehow extracted and<br>
effectively "wasted" by dumping it into a Proof of Work distributed<br>
ledger representing BitCoin value?<br>
<br>
One could argue that there are much better uses of this negEntropy than<br>
inflating a strange Ponzi Bubble?<br>
<br>
My Father used to make the apology/excuse for his relative's moonshining<br>
as the most efficient way for folks on the inland side of the Cumberland<br>
Gap to monetize their ability to produce, process and deliver crops<br>
(i.g. corn) to market. Where farmers on the seaboard side could sell<br>
their corn, it was prohibitively expensive to haul corn to the Virginia<br>
Markets from <a href="http://W.VA" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">W.VA</a> and KY, but distilled "corn squeezin's" represented<br>
concentrating the "value" out of the sun falling on the corn, etc. The<br>
hydropower from the Great Bear waterhsed, would seem to be mined of<br>
it's negEntropy to create "value" in the form of BitCoin.<br>
<br>
I don't expect POW to continue much longer in the shadow of POS. I<br>
also wonder if when/if/as BitCoin value is maxed if the energy use will<br>
drop radically. Absent mining new coin, doesn't BitCoin operation<br>
degenerate to the same energy cost (covering transactions only) as<br>
other (POS) blockchain implementations?<br>
<br>
<br>
On 4/14/21 1:45 PM, Prof David West wrote:<br>
> Just read: in 2024, when it is expected to peak, Bitcoin mining in China alone will consume more power than the country of Italy.<br>
><br>
> Known server farms (excluding NSA, military, etc.) in the US use more energy per year than the country of England.<br>
><br>
> But I am sure they are all "net zero."<br>
><br>
> davew<br>
><br>
><br>
> On Wed, Apr 14, 2021, at 1:31 PM, u\u01ddl\u0183 \u2199\u2199\u2199 wrote:<br>
>> <a href="https://youtu.be/PQbYk1p2cn8" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/PQbYk1p2cn8</a><br>
>><br>
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>> \u2199\u2199\u2199 u\u01ddl\u0183<br>
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