this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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You can say the same about any technology advancement. The fire, wheel, black powder, electricity, radio, tv, internet, crypto, AI, etc. The problem doesn't reside in the technology but in the people exploiting it for evil intentions.
Guns don't kill people, people kill people excuse.
If bitcoin didn't use 40 terawatts to mine and was more reasonable in its electricity demand then I don't think that many people would care about it. It still wouldn't make it useful but at least it wouldn't be actively damaging the environment.
We might even be able to find a use for it at that point. But as it stands now the energy requirements essentially make the technology not worth it given the very minor benefits.
This is an argument for renewables, not fot shitcanning POW.
I hate that argument because it's already been disproven. People use guns to kill people, often in heated situations.
If everyone wasn't wandering around with guns in their pockets all of the time then they wouldn't be the opportunity to shoot someone. Things would massively improve if the law was simply adjusted to not allow people to carry guns in public and they're only allowed to keep them in their house and other authorised locations such as gun rangers and designated hunting locations. The gun nuts will still be able to play with their toys, but the murder rate would drop.
So what's the positive uses of crypto then? You listed many things that are immensel useful like the wheel, fire, electricity, etc. Do you think crypto fits in that category?
I don't want to say crypto in general, but Bitcoin in particular was born after the 2008 crisis, as a decentrized form of money, meaning storing value against the inflationary fiat money that the goverments can print in a centralized manner, destroying all your savings. I think any technology that empowers decentralization is positive. Same as fediverse. And in the case of bitcoin, having a decentrized money it's a really positive tool for freedom to avoid centralizing the power in the governments. But I am curious on knowing why you say that there is no positive uses.
Well, the decentralization of Bitcoin only lasted so long. Now it is in the hand of a few large "mining" corporations who can afford the hardware and have access to cheap electricity.
As soon as you could exchange it for real money it just became another tool of capital to move in secret.
I believe any good thing you can say about crypto will eventually be coopted and controlled by capital.
The same is true for all "disruptive" technology unless it's built specifically to be hostile to monied interests, like the fediverse - and even then, you have to continue defending it against incursions.
As long as those companies have to compete with each other for mining, there is some decentralization. Ofc it could be a ton more, some currencies like Monero use different hash functions that cant have custom chips made for them, making it easier for traditional CPUs to mine it, so large companies cant control vast amounts of the hash rate.
That's oversimplifying things quite a lot. And is also not accurate.
Just an anecdote but never the less.
A couple of years ago I got a job at an animal shelter in a country that's not the one I live in. For this I was paid 400€/m in cash to cover my bills back home during the time. So I went to the local BTCatm and even though they charge an insane markup (15/20% iirc) it was still cheaper than the "minimum fee" charged by the bank/western union.
As useful as the electricity or fire? Probably not. But as a tool for low paid workers that go to another country and is sending money home to their families without having to pay half of it in fees it's pretty usefull.
Original purpose of BTC is to prevent government from controlling and inflating the supply of money. You can't make 1000 BTC from thin air and put it into circulation. There is no company or CEO that controls it, it's code is maintained by open community and network secured by globally distributed miners and nodes. That's regarding BTC, other cryptocurrency nah