Bitcoin’s energy use has been one of the more interesting, and less explored, avenues of the brave new world the crypto community is building. To date I have mostly seen this play out in very simplistic arguments along the lines that Bitcoin is bad because it uses as much energy as whole countries use. On those terms it certainly sounds bad but I came across a more nuanced discussion of the question in this post on the “Principlesandinterest” blog.
Toby lays out some of the counter arguments used to support Bitcoin and in doing so gets into some of the history of how we value things. While my bias remains that Bitcoin’s energy use is a concern, Toby’s post opened my mind up to some of the broader issues associated with the question. Definitely worth reading if you are interested in the question of cryptocurrency and the nature of money.
Tony – From the Outside
From the outside 