[woah]

It’s pretty simple, bitcoin mining has the same purpose as gold mining: to get something which is hard to get. The rarity just makes these things useful as a store of value.

The world would be better off without bitcoin mining, and much better off without gold mining.

[zhte415]

The speculation value of bitcoin dominates the use store of value, well, value. It is a speculative instrument at this point. Yes, a nice proof of concept, but now an instrument of speculation with a net negative yield.

Gold mining was of kinda stable fixed supply for millennia, then after the 'miners' in Johannesburg discovered half of the world's gold beneath their feet and industry progressed, became of productive value. As of diamonds today.

Bitcoin is of value there. It proved the blockchain, fantastic achevement. But like a natural vs synthetic diamond, of little future value. Further resources invested mining it are seeking returns which will not tend to zero but end in negative. Ethereum, the blockchain which no one fully understands or trusts, the left to Bitcoin's right.

Pivotal ideas, yes. And the end is a long way away.