We are building the global financial and economic infrastructure for the 21st century, the Bitcoin Network. You hear a lot of superficial arguments of how Bitcoin is wasteful and must be stopped, but these arguments are misplaced.
When you think about money, you think of a unit of account, a medium of exchange, and a store of value, which was used over the course of the history of human civilization. Today the most advanced form of money is represented by Blockchain-based networks, in particular Bitcoin, and it is important to understand why they have their particular features, and if they are fit to replace traditional forms of money.
In the past for thousands of years, we have had gold backed money, and that too was Proof of Work. This is what is the greatest accusation against Bitcoin of how wasteful it is, but think about it: in order to have gold backed money, you had to discover, develop and control goldmines, and then extract the gold, refine it, transport it, and store it. This was and is still a pretty sizable effort, and that is why when you were able to show the physical gold, either in your vaults or in the form of coins, everyone admired you, the king, and trusted your money.
Modern forms of traditional money are Proof of Work as well: the petrodollar shows the ability of the United States to protect oil trade, and impose the monopoly use of the USD on it; fiat currencies derive their value from the cumulative effort of the people working in the economies accepting them.
We have an abundance of energy, and Bitcoin computers are not going to fry the world; they are going to bootstrap the world into discovering new opportunities and new ways to build a civilization. You must understand the details of this, at least to such a degree that you do not fall prey to the superficial analysis that is directed against it from the point of view of the incumbent interests. The reason why you must understand it is because it is unstoppable, not only from the point of view of cyber attacks, but also from the point of view of governments not being able to make it illegal to own or to transfer.
Bitcoin is going to be part of our future and it has been for the past 10 years. Hopefully, you will stop blaming it for being wasteful.
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