[grondilu]

> We literally set things on fire to generate electricity for these global brute force algorithms.

Who's "we"? Because I don't. People who mine do. They do it by their own free will. It's their resources they spend.

If you want to talk about setting things on fire for no reason, let's talk about smoking. Google tells me more than a billion people smoke. I'll argue that the maintenance of a decentralized, publicly accounted money system is more useful than people inhaling tobacco smoke.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

> It's their resources they spend.

It's the global commons: carbon and other pollution from electricity generation, fossil fuel extraction. Manufacturing and building wind farms and solar arrays also have an environmental impact.

[feedjoelpie]

If you want to compare Bitcoin deflation to substance addiction, I'll agree with you all day long.

[rothbardrand]

Worth noting that the vast majority of bitcoin is mined from hydroelectric power.

Ironically for the ether pumpers on this thread, the primary crypto currency that is powered by burning coal and oil is ethereum.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

Do you have numbers to support this. Because, as they say in the industry: if all we have is opinions, let's go with mine.

[grondilu]

It has to be, otherwise there is an arbitrage opportunity : hydroelectric power is the cheapest there is.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

Well, I hadn't really looked in to it before, but a bit of a search proves your both right.

Forbes says "The largest share of the miners are located in China, close to the border with Tibet where cheap hydropower is relatively abundant."[1]

1.https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterdetwiler/2016/07/21/mining...