What do you think of Crypto Currencies?

[fescuerescue]

17. The environment argument is specious. But cryptos are the future in ways unrelated to currency

The environment aspect is specious simply because the #1 cost in mining bitcoin power. It's why I stopped mining bitcoin back in 2014. The power just got to be too expensive.

The miners nowadays are using geopower, hydroelectric and other cheap sources of power. There are of course some criminals using stolen power which is already a crime.

Also the top cryptos are moving to proof of stake, instead of proof of work. Ethereum (the #2) will be there next year and Cardano is already there. Those use about 0.1% of the current power of POS.

Currently all cryptos use about the same power as the banking system. Which IS substantial. The banking system however continues to grow, while cryptos are rapidly moving green.

I read somewhere that bitcoin uses about the same amount of power worldwide as the world-wide footprint of video games (xbox etc)

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Personally, I do not believe crypto-currency will be how we trade money in the future. However smart contracts and other securities wrapped in crypto blockchain is likely how we will trade stocks and bonds in 20 years.

There are already some european banks making bond offerings over ethereal.

The genie is out of the bottle with cryptos. Now that banks and institutional money worldwide is going into it, there is no stopping it.

The real money out there will not allow law makers to stop it.