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To be fair, the ban is for crypto mining that uses fossil fuels only. But I completely agree with your point that it should just be a ban on fossil fuels. More
by datadata 4y ago
To be fair, the ban is for crypto mining that uses fossil fuels only. But I completely agree with your point that it should just be a ban on fossil fuels.
More generally it is troubling that the ban implicitly is an attack against general purpose computing. There is a policy that only certain programs get to use energy sources. Even those who want to kill crypto currencies should think about the downstream consequences of this policy, and what else it could be applied to next.
- polygamous_bat 4y ago> More generally it is troubling that the ban implicitly is an attack against general purpose computing. ASICs that mine Bitcoin are _anything but_ a general purpose computer. It's like saying "banning coal rollers is an affornt against general transportation". I personally would be pretty okay if the ban was against Bitcoin mining ASICs instead, knowing that it does nothing to restrict any other computing freedom.
- datadata 4y agoThe ban is not specifically for bitcoin with asic mining, but for all "proof of work" operations. You are right that most bitcoin hardware is not general purpose computing hardware, but I would still defend the liberty of a business to optimize their hardware for whatever their compute objective is.
- polygamous_bat 4y agoWhat about rolling coal [0]? Do you support vehicle owner's right to modify and optimize their vehicle for whatever their objective is? Or do you think computation is somehow magical and thus different? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal