The only reason I mention that you should mind your own energy uses is that you seem concerned about externalities and distraught bitcoin is doing the opposite of your thesis. Discuss away but it's not working. Your best bet is to regulate what you have influence on, your own uses of energy.
Right, I think the $721.5 billion that the US spends every year in weapons and war stuff is a waste. They should spend it to give their population some kind of decent healthcare.
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No, it is my/your personal decision how to waste electricity. You find Bitcoin a waste, I find Netflix streaming a waste (just as example).
If/once the environmental cost is priced in, all will be fine.
Once that is done, nobody would use this coal plant for mining bitcoins anyway, because it will be too expensive.
That’s like saying it’s your personal decision to smoke cigarettes in a crowded airplane.
The key part of my reply is: If/once the environmental cost is priced in, all will be fine.
There are many ways to waste electricity. Bitcoin is a big one, but so is electric heating of uninsulated houses (still very common in the US): https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=39293
=> All this will be solved by pricing in the environmental cost.
This is like seeing someone else light a cigarette on a plane, and deciding it’s harmless for you to smoke because someone else is already smoking.
(Edit: changed metaphor to match original)
And the exact same proposition for any use of energy. That you don't find it useful does not mean it is not.
Mind your own uses of energy and leave the market to decide what is really valuable.
Obviously not.
Different sources of energy have different externalities, and different uses have different impacts.
The market is made up of people, who make decisions by communicating with one another.
Tellinge people not to discuss what is valuable and what the externalities is a sign you don’t have faith in the market.
The only reason I mention that you should mind your own energy uses is that you seem concerned about externalities and distraught bitcoin is doing the opposite of your thesis. Discuss away but it's not working. Your best bet is to regulate what you have influence on, your own uses of energy.
Why have you read emotions into this?
What goal do you imagine it isn’t working at?
Right, I think the $721.5 billion that the US spends every year in weapons and war stuff is a waste. They should spend it to give their population some kind of decent healthcare.