Comment on Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power — government now requiring commercial miners to report energy consumption

• FaceDeer@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  People speculate on the price of "normal currency" too.

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  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’m well aware.

    But far, far, far, far more people use it as currency. Exchanging it for goods and services is clearly the main use for it.

    Crypto is used like a stock.

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    • deafboy@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      There are people who ride the bike as a means of transport. Then there are people who build their entire identity around riding a bike. That doesn’t mean one or the other rides it wrong.

      A token of value can have multiple different usecases at the same time.

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      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Bikes are used as a mod of transport. That’s what everybody uses them for.

        Crypto isn’t really used as a currency. It is used like a stock.

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    • FaceDeer@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      In addition to using it as a currency, sure. But as I asked rigatti, is that a problem? At worst one might perhaps argue that the name "cryptocurrency" is misleading, but I've never cared much about semantics like that.

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      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        You’re saying “in addition to using it as a currency” as if that’s actually what people do with crypto. They don’t.

        And yeah, it is a problem. It renders it useless outside of as a bit of gambling on the side.

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  • rigatti@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    But faaaarr fewer than those who use it for transactions. In the crypto world it’s reversed.

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    • FaceDeer@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Is that a problem?

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      • General_Effort@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yes, the price fluctuations created by speculation make it hard to use for payment. How do you agree on a fair price when you don’t know what the “money” will be worth in a few weeks.

        The deflationary effect caused by hoarding currency, as is done with bitcoin, would bring about a Great Depression scenario in a real economy.

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• Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It is.

  Yes, cryptocurrencies are used for buying goods and services.

  Third, energy consumption is a great point if you ignore the material resource acquisition cost, worker cost, production cost, sundry cost, hardware cost, conventional debit and credit fees, service personnel cost, data centers, servers, and telecommunication network costs of conventional currency infrastructure.

  Yeah, if we ignore all of that, then the resource consumption of a single energy intensive cryptocurrency seems high.

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  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yes, cryptocurrencies, aka “currencies”, are used for buying goods and services.

    No no no. Cryptocurrencies aren’t used for buying goods and services outside of extremely fringe scenarios.

    People trade them like they do stocks. You can pretend that’s not the case all you want, but you know it to be true.

    I can’t go to Aldi and pay for my shopping with bitcoin or whatever shitcoin you hold. I can’t pay my bills with it. I can’t go get a haircut with it.

    All I can do is treat it like a stock.

    Energy consumption is a great point if you ignore the material resource acquisition cost, worker cost, production cost, sundry cost, hardware cost, conventional debit and credit fees, service personnel cost, data centers, servers, and telecommunication network costs of conventional currency infrastructure

    I’m not ignoring any of that. Crypto still uses far more, and to top it all off, isn’t even used as a currency.

    You cryptobros have been saying crypto will replace real currency any day now for years. It’s not happening. Sorry to burst your bubble.

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    • Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yes, you can buy groceries or a haircut with cryptocurrency.

      Because most of them are less than a decade old, it isn’t as widespread as many more established currencies, but you can absolutely buy groceries by a haircut, eat at Burger King, buy a house, buy a car, pay utility bills, obviously pay for various forms of entertainment like twitch, newegg, there’s tons of stores that you can use cryptocurrency.

      And you can also buy gift cards with cryptocurrency that you can use for literally anything obviously.

      It’s fine if you don’t like it, but people are using it as a currency to purchase any type of material good you would purchase with conventional currency.

      You keep throwing your tantrum about how cryptocurrency is going nowhere while it grows by 100 million per year and many of the world’s governments are developing and purchasing cryptocurrencies.

      They’re probably developing those cryptocurrencies for fun, right?

      It’s probably like that dumb digital debit and credit card system that came up within the '70s.

      Total bullshit, credit and debit cards.

      Good thing that credit rating system never caught on, huh?

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      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Cool. I’ll explain this to the person at the till next time I’m buying some milk, then I’m sure they’ll accept my dickbutt coin.

        People are developing crypto as a gamble/investment. Not as a real currency.

        And lol at you saying crypto is like debit/credit cards. It isn’t.

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      • BleatingZombie@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Where? Where do you see that? I’ve literally never been to a grocery store or hairdresser that accepts ANYTHING other than cash or card (maaybe checks)

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• Revan343@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Except it’s not really a currency is it? Nobody actually uses this stuff for buying goods and services

  Except Montero

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