[NetBehaviour] blockchain electrical consumption?

[helen varley jamieson]

hi mustafa,

you make a good point; i am lucky enought to live in a situation where i
don't need cryptocurrencies. but i do remember the role played by
bitcoin in the wikileaks crisis, & i can see the social benefit of
projects like bail bloc.

but are cryptocurrencies really a solution for such situations, or more
of a temporary panacea? my concern is that even if those who need
cryptocurrencies don't care about the hype swirling around it all, the
neoliberal capitalists are still jumping on the blockchain bandwagon &
working out ways to control & profit from it as fast as possible. the
same corruption, hyperinflation, censorship, monopolies & all the other
problems will be rapidly migrated to the new system & everyone will find
themselves in a similar place as before ...

perhaps i'm being too cynical, but it seems to me that it's already
drifted quite a long way from its altruistic moorings. wherever there is
profit to be made, or even the perception of possible profit, the
problems arrive soon enough. (i'd like to be proved wrong!).

h :/


On 07.11.2017 22:57, Mustafa Al-Bassam via NetBehaviour wrote:
> It is easy to not for westerners who live in stable economies to not see
> the social benefits of cryptocurrency. But for economies strife with
> corruption and hyperinflation, the need for censorship-resistant money
> (cryptocurrency) is obvious, as is the need for censorship-resistant
> speech. In Venezuela, some people have no choice but to use
> cryptocurrency to merely survive and afford basic things
> (https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/bitcoin-mining-is-popular-in-venezuela-because-of-hyperinflation.html).
> Let's not forget that Bitcoin was first popularised when WikiLeaks used
> it to overcome its banking blockade that prevented it from accepting
> donations.
>
> The original adopters of cryptocurrency are cypherpunks - Satoshi
> invented Bitcoin partly as a way to overcome the problem of monopolistic
> banks that are 'too big to fail' (leading to the 2008 of bailout). Do
> not get confused: people who actually need cryptocurrency because of
> corruption, hyperinflation or capitalistic monopolies (i.e. Western
> Union) couldn't care less the 'blockchain' and 'ICO' hype that is being
> taken advantage of by people trying to jump on the bandwagon.
>
> On 06/11/17 11:08, helen varley jamieson wrote:
>> looking at the environmental impact of it all is really important,
>> because huge amounts of resources are being devoted to something that
>> - as far as i can see - serves very little actual purpose. with the
>> exception of projects like julian's, the focus seems to be
>> predominantly on personal wealth gain & speculation & any supposed
>> social benefits of the technology are just a way to justify it. 
>>
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-- 
helen varley jamieson
helen at creative-catalyst.com <mailto:helen at creative-catalyst.com>
http://www.creative-catalyst.com
http://www.upstage.org.nz
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