Megillah Gorilla posted:

The "good nazi" myth needs to loving die already. Rommel was a oval office.




edit: I see this was already covered. Good

freebooter posted:

Eventually crypto will stop being seen as a speculative asset and will return to what God intended it for: black market transactions.

Regular Wario posted:

you dont "gotta hand it" to the nazis

Jezza of OZPOS posted:

God this pisses me off. Crypto was a really dope idea that just immediately got subsumed by speculative capital and turned into a tech bubble like I know that happens to everything so I shouldn't be surprised.

EoinCannon posted:

It's an inherently libertarian and some would say, right wing idea

Electric Wrigglies posted:

Is this why some people seem way overinvested in hating on crypto? That it is seen as money Hitler would use?

MysticalMachineGun posted:

Saw a printed out A4 sign the other day saying CASH IS KING and it's like, why do these motherfuckers think anyone is going to get rid of hard currency. WHY

Breetai posted:

It's purely speculative electronic monopoly money that takes the electrical output of several European nations to maintain. Its value is poo poo because it's backed by nothing but the hopes and dreams of the next bagholder, it's ability to transfer money is poo poo in comparison with the electronic funds transfer system of any competent bank, the only reason to use it is if you're a rube, a conman, a fuckwit techbro, or someone who thinks they can get rich quick because the other guy will totally be the one holding the bag.

Jezza of OZPOS posted:

Crypto was a really dope idea

CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:

It was always a bad idea looking for a non existant problem to solve. Same with blockchain

Breetai posted:

Some absolute mental vacuum at work suggested exploring putting our Big Data databases on blockchain.

Our largest landing db is 270 Terabytes.

Breetai posted:

It's purely speculative electronic monopoly money that takes the electrical output of several European nations to maintain. Its value is poo poo because it's backed by nothing but the hopes and dreams of the next bagholder, it's ability to transfer money is poo poo in comparison with the electronic funds transfer system of any competent bank, the only reason to use it is if you're a rube, a conman, a fuckwit techbro, or someone who thinks they can get rich quick because the other guy will totally be the one holding the bag.

Electric Wrigglies posted:

So like gold, precious stones/diamonds, gaudy mansions, etc but with less death and environmental damage and more transferability than those and far more flexibility than bank transfers .

I deal with international money transfers; personally and professionally, all the time. They are not as easy or cheap as you make out. Often not possible (Commbank does not transfer to Cote D'Ivoire at all), slow (a payment out of Burkina Faso is multiple weeks minimum) or expensive (a single transfer can rack up $100s of dollars of transfer costs for a few hundred dollars transferred (yes more than the amount - there is a reason why transfer-wise, remitly etc are becoming so popular). This is not just for the rich - overseas Filipino/Indonesian/Bangladeshi workers earn maybe 5-600 bucks a month and send home most of it but fees will be ~$50 per month in transfer costs.

I am too cautious to trust crypto and it is a worse investment/store of wealth than gold (gold is shiny, heavy and harder to misplace) in my opinion if someone is married to not having printable currency, shares or property. But the concept of a trustable transfer of money outside relying on the wind of their whims of middlemen is attractive.

Electric Wrigglies posted:

but with less death and environmental damage

Electric Wrigglies posted:

a trustable transfer of money

iajanus posted:

Hahahahahahaha good one

iajanus posted:

Hahahahahahaha good one

gay picnic defence posted:

Electric Wrigglies posted:

I would be super chuffed if you can provide sources that support diamond, gold and precious stone mining around the world causing less damage and issues than *checks notes* generating the power of a good-sized European country.

hooman posted:

Diamond, gold and precious stones have uses that are not acting simply as a financial instrument. Especially diamond and gold. Crypto consumes all that power to enable securities trading.

Jezza of OZPOS posted:

This is pretty dumb because the vast majority of those things being mined is not used for practical purposes it's enabling security trading and making trinkets.

Electric Wrigglies posted:

I would be super chuffed if you can provide sources that support diamond, gold and precious stone mining around the world causing less damage and issues than *checks notes* generating the power of a good-sized European country.

hooman posted:

They aren't traded as securities, nobody is in the short term market for diamonds or gold.

Jezza of OZPOS posted:

This is pretty dumb because the vast majority of those things being mined is not used for practical purposes it's enabling security trading and making trinkets.

gay picnic defence posted:

Gold is absolutely traded on a short term basis. Have a look at the London Metals Exchange

CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:

diamond however is approx 70-80% industrial because it's real drat useful for cutting, drilling, polishing and grinding.

gay picnic defence posted:

The value of diamonds isn't really tied to the fact they have an actual use besides being a store of wealth, you can't use industrial grade diamonds for jewellery and as much as you could theoretically smash up gem quality diamonds to make abrasives you probably don't want to.

NPR Journalizard posted:

You can use lab grown diamonds for jewellery though, except for the fact that people seem to really like having child slave labour involved in making their shiny rocks.

NPR Journalizard posted:

You can use lab grown diamonds for jewellery though, except for the fact that people seem to really like having child slave labour involved in making their shiny rocks.

gay picnic defence posted:

The value of diamonds isn't really tied to the fact they have an actual use besides being a store of wealth, you can't use industrial grade diamonds for jewellery and as much as you could theoretically smash up gem quality diamonds to make abrasives you probably don't want to.

CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:

Lab grown diamonds are so good DeBeers changed their campaign saying the "true value of a gem diamond is it's flaws"

That wasnt the point I was trying to go against - what I was debunking is the idea diamonds are primarily used for wealth store when they arent. There's also on that tho the point that trying to sell "gem" diamonds usually doesnt financially go too well so thy arent that great as a value store unless you get a diamond of note

CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:

Crypto single handed reversed a whole bunch of emissions reductions and is responsible for actual full percentages of carbon emissions as well as requiring a bunch of precious resources to build ASICs like.... gold to do exactly jack loving poo poo worthwhile. Crypto does not solve any problem at all and is significantly worse that what exists now.

Electric Wrigglies posted:

Crypto is estimated to use about half to three quarters of a percent of global energy generation, mostly from renewables (because they routinely build where cheap and often wasted (hydro)electricity is available) so no, crypto is nothing remotely close to a full percentage points of carbon emissions. In fact, if it helps monetize otherwise curtailed renewable generation (and it reduces/scales back consumption at other times), it is contributing to the transition to renewables by decreasing the importance of dispatchable generation while improving the economics of otherwise marginal wind and solar.

Again, I just simply don't trust crypto but some of the stuff being thrown up just sounds like people going out of their way to misinform themselves on something they inherently don't like.

https://unu.edu/press-release/un-study-reveals-hidden-environmental-impacts-bitcoin-carbon-not-only-harmful-product posted:

Global Bitcoin mining is highly dependent on fossil fuels, with worrying impacts on water and land in addition to a significant carbon footprint

quote:

during the 2020–2021 period, the global Bitcoin mining network consumed 173.42 Terawatt hours of electricity. This means that if Bitcoin were a country, its energy consumption would have ranked 27th in the world, ahead of a country like Pakistan, with a population of over 230 million people. The resulting carbon footprint was equivalent to that of burning 84 billion pounds of coal or operating 190 natural gas-fired power plants. To offset this footprint, 3.9 billion trees should be planted, covering an area almost equal to the area of the Netherlands, Switzerland, or Denmark or 7% of the Amazon rainforest.

quote:

The UN scientists report that Bitcoin mining heavily relies on fossil energy sources, with coal accounting for 45% of Bitcoin's energy supply mix, followed by natural gas (21%). Hydropower, a renewable energy source with significant water and environmental impacts, is the most important renewable source of energy of the Bitcoin mining network, satisfying 16% of its electricity demand. Nuclear energy has a considerable share of 9% in Bitcoin’s energy supply mix, whereas renewables such as solar and wind only provide 2% and 5% of the total electricity used by Bitcoin.

Breetai posted:

Eat a turd, electric fuckwit.