I rarely post here. Too busy working on my cancer problem. But I'll chime in on this one.
The huge energy and
carbon emissions numbers that show up in these scaremongering articles are usually done with a calculation of the hashing power of the network, how much energy it takes, and then they figure it as if it all came from the nasty high Sulphur coal fired power plants of China. In reality though, supply and demand has caused bitcoin mining operations to move to where the electricity is inexpensive. Examples are the massively over built dams in China where their grid can only transport half the power. Mining operations moved there to buy that unused power and everyone is happy. The state makes more money since it can sell the power and the mining operations get a cheap power source that they can use to out compete their competitors. Same goes with the geothermal power of iceland, and the massively difficult and dangerous methane that comes from oil rigs. Generally they just blast the gas into the sky and light it on fire. It's wasted. Now though bitcoin mining operations have moved in, purchased that gas for pennies on the dollar, run it through generators and run their mining operations with it. It's pretty rare for large mining operations to compete directly with population centers and pay those high prices. They're always looking for bargains and they're always ready to move.
All that power goes to provide tremendous hashing power to the network. That makes it so ultra secure that it's pretty much impossible to attack. Any group or entity that somehow collects
enough hashing power to harm the network would find it vastly more profitable to join the network and rake in the profits.
What attracted me to bitcoin was it's resistance to government seizure. There are situations where, through no fault of your own, you can find yourself under financial attack. Examples if you have an illegal invasive species on your property you could start getting fines. Or if you have a stream on your property and some kind of contamination occurs. Government has been known to start dumping 1000 dollar a day fines on you until you're financially obliterated. If you have bitcoin however, you have something to fall back on in such an emergency. I was a precious metals guy until I got clued in on bitcoin.
Another positive aspect of bitcoin is it's ability to give people an alternative when their
local government currency is over printed and inflated into insanity. With bitcoin they can preserve some of their savings by moving outside of the local economic system. And as bitcoin gains adoption it very gradually decreases a government's ability to print unlimited currency and then wage all these giant international wars, such as Vietnam and that mess we've got going in the middle east right now. I drove down the highway of death in Irag as a young man. It was one of the most horrific experiences of my life. It was all paid for with printed money. When governments have to get the tax payers to pay for these giant wars, they'd have to charge a hefty tax bill. That would cause push back and make these wars less common. With less ability to create money out of nothing, we
should have fewer of these problems.
You could say that governments would then resist bitcoin adoption, and some have. The trend seems to be greater adoption on wall street though. Banks can use crypto now. Deutsche bank is opening bitcoin services, visa and mastercard are adding bitcoin to the massive list of currencies that they offer their services on (soon you'll be able to buy things priced in bitcoin with your visa card. Billionaires and large corporations are adding it to their reserves. And of
course representatives in government as buying it as well. This should decrease the danger of bitcoin being regulated into uselessness or made illegal. Those in power won't want their investment harmed so they will resist if they are told to stomp on it. The result will be less centralized power among these large nation states. Less power to cause problems for their people. Fewer weird operations such as fast and furious, and a less totalitarian society. I suspect it's going to happen slowly enough that it won't alarm anyone until it's too late.
The actual use of bitcoin is an amazing thing. The main net is moving toward larger transactions that require high security. In such situations the fees or the wait time aren't a problem. Most of the purchases I make though use the bitcoin lightning network. I'm kicking back in Mexico (working on my cancer problem) and I've bought quite a few uber rides and food deliveries from uber eats. There is a vastly greater selection of
gift cards available in the states though, and they can all be purchased with Lightning. Plus Lightning uses onion routing so it's almost entirely anonymous. So that claws back some of our privacy that has been violated by the financial system and government in recent decades. If you want to buy a bushel of apples from a farmer you could pay with lightning. The transaction is instant, anonymous and the fee is way way less than a penny. Very exciting times. I hope I can push my expiration date out a few more years. I want to see how all this unfolds over the next few years. Wish me luck.
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