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So my latest toot/birdsite posts might make you think I’m against the concept of cryptocurrencies in general. I’m not. For the same reason I don’t hold a grudge against Merkle trees, DAGs, or public-key cryptography.
What I am against is Proof of Work (PoW) – used in Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. – which constitutes an unconscionable, unsustainable, and deliberate waste of energy. PoW is not a requirement for cryptocurrencies. For a more sustainable implementation, for example, see Nano.
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(That said, I still find it INCREDIBLY difficult to get excited about money beyond it being a necessity today as a means of being able to exist so you can work on things that actually matter. The latter, I might add, does not equate in my book to “things that make money.”)
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@aral good points. Just as a note, while Bitcoin will probably not change and stay as a “digital gold”, while Etherium is working on different layers to make it more efficient. PoS,sharding, etc. I am not expert in this, but Eth is constantly working on the initial idea to make a general purpose decentralized computer that everyone can build apps on top. It’s definitely not efficient yet, but it keeps getting better.
@aral I'd add another dimension, which is the democratic problem of a digital equivalent of the gold standard.
When the government cannot spend money into existence, it becomes a giant "household" with all the "how will you pay for it" included - and thus beholden to the wealthy.
With fiat money, the people can still use the money system to organize, even if the oligarchs hoard most of it.
