bitcoin

From IndieWeb
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AARP definition of Bitcoin in print: A bunch of computer code that a bunch of criminals, idealists and speculators agree is worth is worth “real” money. Sadly its real-money value swings widely, making it impractical except for criminals, idealists and speculators.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and has only minor overlap with the IndieWeb, conceptually both have been described as a form of decentralization, and some IndieWeb tip pages have provided a Bitcoin address as a payment option in the past.

IndieWeb Examples

None currently.

Criticism

Environmental Hazards

  • 2022-03-20 Is bitcoin compatible with ESG investing?

    ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. It is part of a larger global trend where investors are increasingly using non-financial factors as part of their analysis process to identify material risks and growth opportunities in their portfolios.

    Bitcoin is not compatible with ESG investing.

Massive electricity usage

Tweet citations:

Mining Wastes Electricity At Loss

Quotes from https://pthree.org/2016/01/30/bitcoin-mining-rate-and-waste/ tweeted:

  • https://pthree.org/2016/01/30/bitcoin-mining-rate-and-waste/

    So, according to those numbers, unless using renewable energy, cheaper electricity, or Bitcoin trading goes north of $610 USB/BTC mining for Bitcoin is a net loss. This comes at the expense of 1.3 million pounds of CO2 released into the atmosphere every hour.

Monoculture

Bitcoin is software monoculture, not an open protocol:

From https://twitter.com/patio11/status/682663933941952512 via Ben Werdmüller

[@patio11] Bitcoin is a single C++ codebase, Bitcoin core, not a protocol that anyone can independently interoperate with. It's IE6, not HTTP.

Numerous unresolvable scaling issues

See:

Related:

Bitcoin maximalism

Spambots

Casual mention of Bitcoin on social media bring out the spam bots in force

Enables ransomware

Difficult to Sell

Insecure Wallet Services

Digital Tulip

🌷 Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are digital tulips at best, except you can actually plant tulip bulbs and get pretty flowers, and sometimes more bulbs!

Cargo culture

Artificial trading volumes

Other criticisms

  • 2018-07-13 NYT 12 Russian Agents Indicted in Mueller Investigation

    Russian military intelligence agency, known as the G.R.U. […] the Russians principally sought to use Bitcoin to fund their work, including the purchase of servers and domain names. […] also sought to create their own money by “mining” Bitcoins […] Bitcoin generated from the GRU’s mining activity was used, for example, to pay a Romanian company to register the domain dcleaks.com

Humor

See Also