| > Yet another failure to understand the purpose of mining. The energy is NOT being wasted. In fact, the energy spent mining is the exact thing that makes the Bitcoin network function. The energy is being converted into trust. The more energy that is spent on mining, the more difficult it will be for a well-capitalized entity to perform an attack on the network. > Aaron Greenspan, repeat after me: Mining energy is not wasted. Mining energy is not wasted. Mining energy is not wasted. I think you're missing the point here: Aaron is not denying that markets run on trust, and trust takes work (in both the physical sciences sense and the layman sense) to maintain. What he is saying, as should be clear through his use of the water analogy, is that we should choose currencies for which it is easiest to convert work into trust and usage. Water is off the table, in his analogy, because of the large amount of work required to use it. In other words: he views BTC as another currency which, compared to systems like the USD/ACH/Credit system, is overly laborious to maintain. What's nice is that this is a reasonably scientific claim-- it is not out of the question that someone could compare measurements of the energy usages of the two currencies per unit of value and per transaction. To me, it seems clear that the USD, riding on the trust externalities from the already present authority of the US Gov't, is going to be cheaper. But again, it's a totally measurable assertion. |