[gebruikersnaam]

They might exist, but for now the proof-of-work coins still consume unhealthy amounts of energy.

It's rather pointless to point out that other things exist besides the thing being criticized.

"Murder is bad". "Yes, but food sharing exists".

[rglullis]

Nonsense. The point is that he is putting PoW and all other types of blockchain systems on the same bag.

If his criticism was specific to Bitcoin (or other popular PoW-based systems), then it would hold. But when he acknowledges alternatives and make it sound that they don't exist yet, then it is dishonest.

[pritambaral]

I mean, as he says in his next line, "I’ll care once the total energy consumption of all cryptocurrencies drops to a non-bullshit level.", it's clear he cares about it all on only one axis: "total energy consumption".

PoS's mere existence doesn't affect that axis. I can complaign[1] about how polluting power plants are, knowing full well there exist nuclear power plants, and it wouldn't make me a hypocrite. Sth else might, but not this.

1: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Complaign

[rglullis]

> "total energy consumption".

Which is a bullshit criteria. It is like saying that you are not going to support electric cars until there exists no combustion engine and you are concern about emissions. If you are against cars as a whole, then state so, but don't use one subclass of them as prejudice against all of them.

[TomSwirly]

Cars are a useful form of transportation. Hundreds of millions of people use one every day.

Crypto has been around almost as long as the smartphone and so far the only applications which have emerged are crime and wild speculation. After fourteen years, any rational person should be pretty skeptical that any application that isn't "evading regulations" or speculation will ever appear.

[rglullis]

> only applications which have emerged are crime and wild speculation.

Every. Fucking. Thread.

I was using Bitcoin in 2012 as a means to transfer money between US and Brazil, using perfectly legal exchanges, and that was costing me less than any bank or remittance service would charge me. Was that "crime" or "wild speculation"?

When someone in Argentina can receive payments in USD-equivalent crypto without having to deal with the bullshit manipulated exchange rate from the government, is that "crime" or "wild speculation"?

When someone wants to use crypto to accept payments because PayPal cut them off without reasonable explanation, is that "crime" or "wild speculation"?

There is always someone who is going to throw this "there is no use case" line, and you can be sure that is someone who has no clue what they are talking about.

Use cases already exist. It's not just because your privileged bubble never saw it that it doesn't mean they are not valid. And what I am saying is just the tip of the iceberg. As the UX around scaling solutions improve and transaction fees come down, more use cases will be possible (micropayments, streaming subscriptions, NFTs as authz/authn for services), and I can bet that you will still be talking like "no use cases exist".

There are plenty of things to criticize, but this shit you are doing is tiring, man. Can you please at least find something where you have a chance of being right?

[WesolyKubeczek]

You wish. Just look at some hot heads still thinking communism is a good idea.

[soco]

In this case the metaphor would rather be: "Murder is bad". "Yes but efforts to educate the population exist"