- Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, does not believe in cryptocurrencies, calling them a vehicle for scams and a Ponzi scheme.
- Torvalds was once rumored to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, but he clarified it was a joke and denied owning a Bitcoin fortune.
- Torvalds also dismissed the idea of technological singularity as a bedtime story for children, saying continuous exponential growth does not make sense.
But it’s not backed by energy.
The energy was consumed in the process of creating the crypto, that energy no longer exists and since it doesn’t exist it can’t back anything.
Isn’t there a person that famously said something to the effect of energy is neither created nor destroyed, only modified? I want to say it was like Isaac Newton or something. Some big name anyway. So you’re not destroying the energy. You’re changing the energy into heat, which during the winter can heat your home as a subsidy to your furnace, and you are turning it into a digital representation that you can take and spend anywhere in the world.
Still not describing anything that indicates it backs it.
Good news though, I did reply again so feel free to condescendingly demonstrate your intelligence again.
I get you’re desperately trying to sound smart, but in this context, “energy” meant electricity. Because that’s what it takes to produce cryptocurrency. Not the general definition in the realm of physics study. And electricity can most certainly be created and destroyed.
When you buy gold, you have the gold. It’s backed by the thing you have.
When you buy cryptocurrency, you don’t have the electricity that was spent in fabricating those numbers. You don’t get sent a battery in the post. You have nothing.
So if I have nothing, why are people willing to give me things for it?
Again trying to sound smart. You have nothing tangible. You have numbers on a screen, and for some people that’s enough to throw money at.
Nice attempt at moving the goalposts, btw.
Mind telling me what most people use on a daily basis because numbers on the screen seems pretty common.
Their local currency. You know, that thing we were talking about? If you’ve forgotten you could’ve just scrolled up for a quick refresher.
Yes, but how do they interact with their local currency? Do they hold it in their hands? No, they don’t. It’s all numbers on a screen.
You’re not understanding. Real money isn’t only numbers on a screen. It can be physical or not, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it’s universally backed and usable.
Crypto isn’t. It’s just numbers on a screen without the backing of government, business, or most people.
In this case the heat is something data centers spend even more energy and water on to dispose of
Which is why Monero’s proof of work algorithm ends up being better than Bitcoin. Because for a data center with tons of computers, it makes more financial sense to do something else with the machines rather than mine. But for a home user, it makes tons of sense to mine and get the heat to subsidize their electricity bill during the winter.