That's a pretty dumb analogy man.
You're certainly entitled to your opinion, man, but you did write it down in a public place and are arguing for it here so just be prepared to be laughed at in a few years time when everyone will compare you to a complainer-of-progress in 1900.
I'm not belittling the merits of Bitcoins, except to say mining is a ridiculous waste of computing power and electricity, and it's only going to get worse as time goes by.
It will suck back more power all the time; of this I have no doubt and I actually welcome.
But to call that power suck a waste is to not see the implications of what it allows for.
I remember people complaining that the web was going to be a huge waste of power too. Total deja vu time.
You have the most powerful computing network in the world sucking back about $15,000,000 a day in electricity, currently providing little benefit except to a handful of speculators.
It's currently providing more value than you see, but more importantly, what this embryonic phase will produce is something far larger that will benefit every single person on earth far more than you'd imagine.
Yes, it will still be a huge energy suck... But one that no one complains about anymore, like the web is today.
All that power could be put to better use solving important scientific puzzles related to biology, physics and the universe for the betterment of mankind.
These uses are truly pathetic compared to what's going on with the bitcoin blockchain now. I'll stick with Satoshi's plan, thanks.
Sure there's a purpose, but currently it's for the benefit of very few people and the detriment of many.
If you don't see the benefit yet that's one thing... But how does miner usage of electricity detriment "many?"
They're paying for it, they're not stealing it, you know...
I'm pretty sure I can say whatever the fuck I want though.
We all can. We all get laughed at later for saying silly things like this too.
This is why we don't smoke crack children....
I often wonder why you keep finding yourself in these threads.
Luke, can you just pull your head out of your own ass for half a minute please, and take a look around?
Et tu, Matt?
I don't know anyone on WF with more bitcoin business going on than you... How the fuck can you not be up to speed on the ramifications of what an impervious blockchain is going to do to humanity?
The computing power IS a waste, I don't care what you say. It's needed because they haven't felt the need to migrate to a better/new system.
The altcoins will surely die in 2014 or by 2015 tops. It'll all be high-effeciency farms like the chinese one linked above ever afterwards, so the waste in older systems will grow smaller over time.
Primecoin on the other hand does somewhat-useful calculations by solving
cunningham chains. Primecoin was entered into the record books 3 times in 2013 by producing new chains.
It's a cute concept, probably useful for mathematicians to know a few more prime numbers... That won't change society much, however.
As a side note, it looks like our board of directors may approve our new altcoin intorduction. A altcoin backed by hard assets.
I beg you to go read moar about this history of egold and liberty reserve... This is dangerous black magic you're dealing with bro.
Just the fact that you said that above may put you in a prison cell one day, even if they can't tie you otherwise to that future service. You need to bump up your OpSec skills just to talk about this.
