Cryptocurrency bitcoin marks 10 years

more like 1 year 10 times

Utterly staggering unsustainable energy costs in running a single transaction, let alone more than one:

https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption

Number of U.S. households powered for 1 day by the electricity consumed for a single transaction: 27.94

Country closest to Bitcoin in terms of electricity consumption: Austria

So basically it's nuts

Bitcoin is the height of thinking there is endless energy. It cannot survive a transition to green renewables. In a world of getting rid of the largest energy users, the low hanging fruit, bitcoin won't even ripen

Blockchain as an idea is interesting as a coupon that can run once in a while. But we can't afford an electric currency simple as that.

It's wonderful for money laundering and despotic regimes

It remind me of those who believe there will be a hydrogen economy but don't understand that as an engineering problem it's a really stupid idea. You can do it, sure. You can fly into the Sun too. Doesn't mean they make sense to do. It's not about if we can do it, it's about why are we deciding this is a good idea. It isn

Bitcoin stems from the same blind techno-triumphalism, not thermodynamic reality that could be answered in a Grade 12 chemistry or science class. It's like AI. Another wingnut idea nobody is stopping because we all want to be unemployed.

There are limits to do things. Now that we can do anything, doesn't mean they make sense to do.

Also banks for all their perceived evil are run by nations of people who set the rules. Those rules have changed over the decades to deal with problems in lending practices, money laundering, etc. Bitcoin offers no such public protections, and will seek them from the banking system in order to continue.

Thus it continues to be an extension of the banking system, and not separate.

Oh look, the $20 in my wallet didn't cost any electricity. Now...now...now.... As long as there is money that doesn't cost energy along any point in its life, Bitcoin is a money loser

It's wonderful for money laundering and despotic regimes

That's the spirit!

It remind me of those who believe there will be a hydrogen economy but don't understand that as an engineering problem it's a really stupid idea. 

I know some extremely smart PhDs, world renowned in their fields, who believe hydrogen has a viable future. Some are working on it full time. But you know better? You are an expert in both blockchain and hydrogen? I don't know much about AI, so i will defer to your obvious expertise in that field as well.

Whether you invest Cryptocurrencies including the bitcoins or not depends on self-responsibility.

It always hands Risk and Benefit.

@commanteer,

I'm not sure the Wright brothers and automobile analogies are appropriate. My own confusion is that I'm not sure what problems cryptocurrencies are intended to solve. Greater anonymity? Less involvement by governments? Greater security than conventional banks? Or just greater convenience than carrying real gold or diamonds? If the Wright brothers had been trying to solve the problem of delivering food from farms to markets, I think we would agree they were going nowhere.

Various limitations of the blockchain concept are known. One view is that if cryptocurrencies increase in popularity, simple physics will make it revert to a centralized model for most users, where most of will have to put our trust in the big players. It sounds not so different from conventional money and no more convenient than a Visa card.

Bitcoin has a seriously unbelievably bad scale problem.  

Let's break it down as simply as possible:

Electricity Usage:

826 kWh per single Bitcoin transation

897 kWh per month per house

Yep, same units!

Therefore, roughly speaking, and depending where you live, you are allowed under our current electrical grid to do a single Bitcoin transaction a month!

Depending where you are you pay around $30 a month for your electricity. Therefore per 1 Bitcoin transaction requires you to add $30 to every transaction to pay for the electricity costs.

For you to do more than 1 a month you will require 30x the power generation stations. Then you can do 1 a day. If you want to do more than 1 a day then that's tx * 30 number of power generation stations. And that's just for you. What if someone else wants to?  

Are you planning on making your own nuclear reactor? Better hope for personal fusion reactors that you can finance yourself I guess. Maybe orbital solar panels that beam lasers, I don't know.

Since the scale is so hilariously bad, why then is Bitcoin in use at all? Because Chinese want to funnel their money into USD or other currencies away from Mother China. And anyone else that needs to escape banking systems. Essentially, global money laundering

But please note the money launderers cannot build nuclear power plants or orbital lasers

I hope that clears some things up. It's really funny and I hope that you are not upset. We should be laughing at it!

Congrats to the worlds most trusted currency bitcoin for completing its glorious and fame oriented 10 years. Cheetah Finance shows a great respect to this currency for its so long survival.

Utterly staggering unsustainable energy costs in running a single transaction, let alone more than one:

The Wright brothers' first flight lasted about 50 seconds, flew a distance of a couple hundred meters a few meter above the ground. Worthless. And yet, look at air travel today. The first automobile could travel only at 2.25 miles per hour with four passengers aboard... for about 15 minutes. And yet, look at cars today.

That's the point people always seem to miss when criticizing new technologies. Technologies evolve and overcome early problems.

That is why so many serious investors and financial experts are getting involved in crypto. They see the potential. Yes, there will be critics like Nouriel Roubini (who sadly seems slightly unhinged these days), but his criticisms are along similar lines - nothing that can't be rectified. Probably the most valid criticism is simply that the most powerful governments will not allow it to flourish. That would be a crime, but people in the West are easily cowed by governments these days. "Terrorists and criminals are here, so give us all of your rights and we'll keep you safe."

Cryptocurrency is here to stay. It may not be the same Bitcoin we have now, it may be other currencies, but they will not go away.