Bitcoin / Bitcoins / Crypto Currency

I mean, people write articles with the headline "Bitcoin generates more electronics waste than the Netherlands".

The Public: Oh my God Bitcoin is so bad!

Me: Er, why the fuck is a country with a population of 17m generating the same electronic waste as a tech that many think is one of the world's worst energy drains that uses essentially disposable hardware?

Unpopular but wholly valid and balanced. I suppose the main thing that keeps me interested is the potential bitcoin as a technology has for solving a shit load of the modern economy's (and those without ready access to standard financial instruments') problems. Much like all new tech, it's derided until it becomes unfathomable how we ever lived without it.

Its a hard opinion to express without it coming across as whataboutism.

It's certainly true that Bitcoin is not the reason we have an energy supply problem and a climate emergency. If BTC didn't exist we would be in pretty much the same position.

I remember doing some fag packet maths and working out that Instagram is equivalent to ~20% of the UK's CO2 emissions.

Fuck knows what Facebook would be.

I mean people rightly query the usefulness of btc. But I think we can categorically say that not only do FB and Instagram have almost zero* usefulness they actually cause societal harm.

So everyone can put that in their whataboutism pipe and smoke it.

*obvs they do provide an income for techbros

More than happy for FB, IG and BTC all to get in the sea.

I did look up facebook vs bitcoin a couple of months ago out of curiosity and FB was about 20% of BTC. Add in Google, Amazon, etc, and it would probably cover BTC. I guess LFGSS is non-zero.

However the ones that I would look at first would be military, then the automotive and aerospace industries. The war in Ukraine is a disaster on many levels, one of which is the horrendous carbon footprint of military operations.

One thing that might not be apparent to people who don't work in blockchain is how much influence lobbyists have over how BTC is reported in the media and also over government positions in the tech. A large amount of negative Bitcoin press is paid for by either groups who are heavily invested and trying to manipulate the market or those who feel threatened by it. If you add the fact that if you have a wallet with about $20m or more in it, you can actually manipulate the markets to some extent so many of these lobbyist groups combine paid for journalism with price manipulation to enrich themselves.

Not conspiracy theorist stuff. This is stuff I've seen with my own eyes and even been invited to be part of.

Edit: one investment group I am familiar with was recruiting psyops specialists last year.

Of course, this isn't unique to bitcoin...it's basically how everything works now days. It's just that this stuff is illegal in conventional financial markets so is better hidden.

Interesting. Completely believe it: it's how news in general works.

nice little bit of zcash trivia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU2pDFvh­Zso

Don't think this would have much effect. Reporting is based on facts and data - how do you manipulate that? Most of the critical coverage is about environmental impact, and the numbers are quite clear there.

Reporting is based on facts and data - how do you manipulate that?

You're a journalist who works for a reputable outlet. Are you really suggesting that all journalists and publications report based only on facts and data and that when they don't, it has no affect on public opinion? Lobbyists and psyops have a major impact on opinion and policy. Look at the Sunak u-turn on windfall tax for Oil and Gas companies for example.

You might report on the facts around the environmental impact of crypto, but did everybody? I think not.

I must be misunderstanding your point.

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-ec­onomics/crypto-lobbying-is-going-ballist­ic/21806674

^ In the first 9 months of 2021 $5.5m was spent by crypto companies on lobbying US Senators alone. And thats just the legal money that makes it onto registers. They aren't throwing that money away. They spending it to influence beneficial policy. And part of that at points has been about convincing as many people as possible that crypto is more damaging to the environment than it actually is. When ETH 2.0 fully switches over to PoS, the money will be spent on telling everyboy that crypto has been fixed. Rinse repeat.

I just find it hard to imagine a fake story about Bitcoin that could be proposed by a lobbyist that a journalist would run. The main criticisms are its use in crime and it's large carbon footprint. Both are real, to an extent. Can you point to any fake story that's been run? I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but I struggle to imagine what it would look like.

It's not so much fake stories as encouraging stories with dog whistles and/or omissions of context. Will pull together some examples when I have time.

CRO rewards already getting cut, still free Spotify for the time being though

Looked at some of my cryptos recently, went from buying fancy goods to lot are worth less than I put in. Thank fuck I’ve got stuff that floats all these stinkers

Just caught up with my emails after a holiday. 0.5% is pretty pathetic.

The 2% always seemed too good to go on forever... guess I'll move onto the 1% Chase card for regular spending, until that is also inevitably cut. Spotify is seemingly the only reason to stay with Crypto.com now

Everything is tanking so don't get worked up over just crypto...

Sheesh...

If you're only in crypto I'd suggest spreading it a bit unless this is your thing. Internet advice obv.

^ this

Crypto.com putting the cashback rate back up to 1% for ruby high rollers and 2% if you restake for another 6 months before the end of May...

I did a spreadsheet for anyone else wondering whether to pull out or stay in. Given I spend probably £4-500 a month roughly it looks like I can take a hit of 40% on the stake and still break even. My stake period has just ended so leaning towards pulling it out I think

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1­WtAUNt-qkhkkcfW_IgqO8_6IzMy7xowpSocM-KLy­xj0/edit?usp=sharing (take a copy if you want to mess with it)

Chase have a 1% spending card so no point sticking around if you aren't getting more than that

Yeah I got the chase account last month - we’re doing a big Reno in September, so it should see a fair bit of action 😅

I get 1 to 2% cashback with a Vitality Amex card. Pretty easy to stay at 2% if you walk a dog and are active. It's been useful to claw back some of our outrageous DIY/refurb spending.

Total shambles,I guess it is good they listen to feedback but they just look incompetent changing the terms 3 times in as many weeks