Re: Excessively energy-consuming software considered malware?

[Attila Lendvai <attila@lendvai.name>]

> (https://issues.guix.gnu.org/54068). At least for bitcoin, mining is
> known to consume an absurd amount of energy (the footprint of a whole
> country, and 1 Bitcoin transaction is said to be equivalent to 735121

the moral argument has been spelled out nicely already.

let me add, though, that a more apples-to-apples comparison here would be to compare Bitcoin to the FED, and PoW to the costs of enforcing the PetroDollar system on the entire world.

these costs not only include the direct environmental damages of wars and militaries. more generally, it also includes the costs of enforcing a certain economic structure globally, instead of potential better alternatives for facilitating cooperation between strangers that may very well promote peace and prosperity more effectively and efficiently than the current system.

and from that perspective i don't see the use of 'absurd amount' justified, by a large margin.

and the more some of us disagree with the above, the more appropriate it seems to have been to use 'controversial morality' by Martin.

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• attila lendvai
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