The only criticism I have is how the author repeatedly conflates Bitcoin with crypto, even mentioning the fraudster SBF. If you do the work to understand monetary philosophy you’ll quickly realise that Bitcoin is the polar opposite of crypto. Bitcoin is about fixing the base layer of human cooperation. Very few people understand this but more do every day.
In no way is this a ‘good idea’. It’s a ridiculous waste of resources that could otherwise be utilised for the good of those communities. If any wealth is actually created from it then no doubt it will go to one powerful person or group. Whole thing should be smashed to bits.
Ya. Let’s deny some of the most impoverished people in the world electricity for the first time in their lives because us fat, wealthy white people don’t approve of the way it is financed and the energy used to create that revenue.
Financing it through Bitcoin is an illusion. The author speaks of dysfunctional governments and manipulative central banks, yet here we have an unregulated industry controlled by a few powerful criminals in a country where corruption is a way of life. What can go wrong?
“an unregulated industry controlled by a few powerful criminals” The whole point of Bitcoin is that it’s not controlled by anyone (that’s incidentally why governments hate it and try, unsuccessfully, to ban it).
Maybe you think we should give them another £4.5billion, which actually did end up in the hands of powerful criminals.
Except the “illusion” is what’s happening. How terribly convenient to have the luxury of taking basics for granted and then quibbling over how people who have never before had them should fare.
Waste of resources? You do understand that the energy harnessed was otherwise going to be ignored? Why is it ok that the people of Africa are held under repression from the West? It’s easy to poo poo a subject when you don’t understand it, I get that. I strongly recommend you dedicate time to understanding these topics in detail.
It would be extremely naive to believe the Bitcoin operation will be run on otherwise wasted energy. What we have here is typical of impoverished African countries, who routinely grow cash crops for export instead of food crops for local consumption and this operation will go the same way.
OS
Orlando Skeete
4 months ago
So instead of using the excess electricity to drive more economic growth which could be used to maintain their microgrid, they are instead using that to speculate on Bitcoin? What happens if the price of Bitcoin crashes (again), will they no longer be able to maintain their electricity system?
Exactly – the microgrid was funded by international aid and will now be controlled by criminal entities cashing in on that investment. They will have no interest in supplying local electricity when there is a clash between feeding the power hungry computers and local demand.
Well, RobbieK, let’s just sit back and watch that river flow.
Instead of a mad scramble to get yourself onto the right side of history with an ostentatious moral stance you could just admit that it’s not your problem and there’s nothing you can do beyond airing your convictions on social media.
AL
Alex Lekas
4 months ago
Of course, the usual suspects hate Bitcoin. They see its existence as indictments of them and their vision of controlling as much human activity as possible. Also, Paul Krugman is the same decent economist turned third rate columnist (and former Enron advisor) who assured readers in 1998 that the Internet’s growth would stall.
Krugman also wrote in 2016 that the stock market will crash if Trump gets elected
JH
Jon Hawksley
4 months ago
I have no problem with owners of surplus electricity mining bitcoins and sellng them while they can but any mention of a bitcoin should also spell out that it has no intrinsic value. It moves wealth from new investors to old investors. At least $100 billion has been transferred by old investors into “real” investments, mostly US treasury bills. It is not available to repay the investors who bought the bitcoins from them. They have to get their money from new investors who think there will be yet more new investors to repay them. One day new investors will instead be attracted to a new fad and the then holders of bitcoins will own an entitlement in a blockchain that no one wants. At that point there will be no income to enable anyone to pay to keep the computers holding the blockchain running. Bitcoins will cease to exist. The only question is when?
RM
Rocky Martiano
4 months ago
9 comments here. Why can I only see 3?
UnHerd Reader
4 months ago
Bitcoin advocates have always been hoping – dreaming – of some sort of use case which makes the cryptocurrency inherently valuable. a first suggestion was use of stranded energy assets and now perhaps we see a second one, which is leveling up financially across the world. Neither were in the thoughts of the early developers, but that’s how tech proceeds!
BD
Bryan Dale
4 months ago
Mining bitcoin’s great so long as you have your own hydro-electric plant. With each passing day, it requires more computational power and therefore more energy to mine. In turn this requires higher valuations to justify the mining costs. Meanwhile transaction costs soar and it becomes increasingly less viable as a currency. When was the last time you used bitcoin to purchase anything?
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Very enjoyable read.
The only criticism I have is how the author repeatedly conflates Bitcoin with crypto, even mentioning the fraudster SBF. If you do the work to understand monetary philosophy you’ll quickly realise that Bitcoin is the polar opposite of crypto. Bitcoin is about fixing the base layer of human cooperation. Very few people understand this but more do every day.
.
In no way is this a ‘good idea’. It’s a ridiculous waste of resources that could otherwise be utilised for the good of those communities. If any wealth is actually created from it then no doubt it will go to one powerful person or group. Whole thing should be smashed to bits.
Ya. Let’s deny some of the most impoverished people in the world electricity for the first time in their lives because us fat, wealthy white people don’t approve of the way it is financed and the energy used to create that revenue.
Financing it through Bitcoin is an illusion. The author speaks of dysfunctional governments and manipulative central banks, yet here we have an unregulated industry controlled by a few powerful criminals in a country where corruption is a way of life. What can go wrong?
“an unregulated industry controlled by a few powerful criminals” The whole point of Bitcoin is that it’s not controlled by anyone (that’s incidentally why governments hate it and try, unsuccessfully, to ban it).
Maybe you think we should give them another £4.5billion, which actually did end up in the hands of powerful criminals.
Except the “illusion” is what’s happening. How terribly convenient to have the luxury of taking basics for granted and then quibbling over how people who have never before had them should fare.
Waste of resources? You do understand that the energy harnessed was otherwise going to be ignored? Why is it ok that the people of Africa are held under repression from the West? It’s easy to poo poo a subject when you don’t understand it, I get that. I strongly recommend you dedicate time to understanding these topics in detail.
It would be extremely naive to believe the Bitcoin operation will be run on otherwise wasted energy. What we have here is typical of impoverished African countries, who routinely grow cash crops for export instead of food crops for local consumption and this operation will go the same way.
So instead of using the excess electricity to drive more economic growth which could be used to maintain their microgrid, they are instead using that to speculate on Bitcoin? What happens if the price of Bitcoin crashes (again), will they no longer be able to maintain their electricity system?
Exactly – the microgrid was funded by international aid and will now be controlled by criminal entities cashing in on that investment. They will have no interest in supplying local electricity when there is a clash between feeding the power hungry computers and local demand.
The entire world is run by criminal entities calling themselves international aid.
Well, RobbieK, let’s just sit back and watch that river flow.
Instead of a mad scramble to get yourself onto the right side of history with an ostentatious moral stance you could just admit that it’s not your problem and there’s nothing you can do beyond airing your convictions on social media.
Of course, the usual suspects hate Bitcoin. They see its existence as indictments of them and their vision of controlling as much human activity as possible. Also, Paul Krugman is the same decent economist turned third rate columnist (and former Enron advisor) who assured readers in 1998 that the Internet’s growth would stall.
Krugman also wrote in 2016 that the stock market will crash if Trump gets elected
I have no problem with owners of surplus electricity mining bitcoins and sellng them while they can but any mention of a bitcoin should also spell out that it has no intrinsic value. It moves wealth from new investors to old investors. At least $100 billion has been transferred by old investors into “real” investments, mostly US treasury bills. It is not available to repay the investors who bought the bitcoins from them. They have to get their money from new investors who think there will be yet more new investors to repay them. One day new investors will instead be attracted to a new fad and the then holders of bitcoins will own an entitlement in a blockchain that no one wants. At that point there will be no income to enable anyone to pay to keep the computers holding the blockchain running. Bitcoins will cease to exist. The only question is when?
9 comments here. Why can I only see 3?
Bitcoin advocates have always been hoping – dreaming – of some sort of use case which makes the cryptocurrency inherently valuable. a first suggestion was use of stranded energy assets and now perhaps we see a second one, which is leveling up financially across the world. Neither were in the thoughts of the early developers, but that’s how tech proceeds!
Mining bitcoin’s great so long as you have your own hydro-electric plant. With each passing day, it requires more computational power and therefore more energy to mine. In turn this requires higher valuations to justify the mining costs. Meanwhile transaction costs soar and it becomes increasingly less viable as a currency. When was the last time you used bitcoin to purchase anything?