[usehackernews]

This isn’t crypto “hype.” It’s not going to impact the price of Ethereum. At least it’s not hype in my opinion. It’s just an impressive engineering feat.

Given crypto isn’t going to die tomorrow, it’s good to see Ethereum has sunset the combustion engine for the EV (Proof of Work -> Proof of Stake). Even if you hate Ethereum, reducing electricity usage of the network by 90%+ is admirable.

[lottin]

Not wasting electricity is absolutely good news for the environment. At the same time, they were wasting electricity before... so I don't know about admirable, they've stopped doing something they shouldn't have been doing in the first place.

[Karunamon]

I'm curious, what are your thoughts on these neural net AI art generation tools like DallE and GPT? You seem to have strong opinions on what "legitimate" uses of electricity are, and they given that an entire economic ecosystem is apparently not legitimate, is making art? How about playing video games?

[lottin]

It depends... can the same outcome be achieved by using 99.5% less electricity? If it can, then it means 99.5% of the electricity consumed by this activity is being wasted, and that is a fact. Otherwise, it becomes a matter of opinion. Do I think casinos are a waste of space and energy? Sure, but this is just an opinion based on my personal preferences. I understand people have different preferences.

[root_axis]

If it required the energy resources of a small country to produce 20 images per day, it would be considered completely absurd by most everyone.

[root_axis]

It's hype - whether or not its also an example of impressive engineering is beside the point. Nobody is suggesting eth devs are bad programmers.