[brokencode]

Of course we could live at 60 degrees in the winter, but most people would agree that their lives are meaningfully improved by increasing the temperature to closer to 70-72.

On the other hand, Bitcoin provides no meaningful benefit to society compared to other currency. The only real benefits of Bitcoin are that it makes ransomware easier to accomplish (which is bad for most people) and that it has made some people a lot of money due to its pyramid scheme qualities (again, bad for most people).

[notch656a]

Crypto provides extraordinary meaning to many people in society compared to other currency. Argentinian freelancers use it to get paid, for instance due to systemic issues with financial transaction in their country.

One big one to me is buying precious metals online with <30 minute clearing time without paying credit card fees. Literally nothing else I can find accomplishes that; I didn't even set out to use crypto for that purpose it just happened to be the best way to do it in my circumstance.

>lives are meaningfully improved by increasing the temperature to closer to 70-72.

Well I could say "nuh uh" and then you could say about bitcoin "nuh uh" but then we'd both merely be saying the other's use of energy consumption is bad. If you have an issue with making sure every bit of electricity is only used for necessities, why don't you go out and say that or explain how you want to make sure externalities are paid for by power consumers. Singling out bitcoin by people living near room temperature with aid of heating/cooling is just hypocrisy.

[brokencode]

That’s a fair point. We should be including the cost of pollution and climate change with the price of energy, and if we were, then I’d care a lot less about the energy use for what I consider nonessential.

That is unfortunately not the world we live in though, and probably never will be due to political reasons.

[paulryanrogers]

Citizens of Kazakhstan or Iran suffering from brown outs or people near recently restarted coal plants may prefer argentinians seek other ways to work around currency and corruption problems.

[spinny]

> On the other hand, Bitcoin provides no meaningful benefit to society compared to other currency.

Decentralization and censorship resistance does not exist in the fiat world. Ask some greek people if Bitcoin was useful to buy food.

Because it's easy for you to open a bank account and have you money secured, it doesn't mean that other people have this luxury.

[notch656a]

People who think money is 'secure' from seizure in the bank aren't thinking one step ahead.