The value of blockchains isn’t the currency systems implemented on them- it’s the general distributed ledger. There are useful problems that can be solved by storing information in public, validated with proof-of-work, with conflicts in history being resolved by consensus.
Coins are the carnival barker trying to push traffic into the system. Do the grueling proof-of
work, and we give you an entry in the ledger that says you own some coins. Get in quick though (at least with Bitcoin), because there aren’t very many. But that means the value can only go up! They’ll get rarer over time!
Yes the inflation model of btc is fundamentally unsustainable. Also it’s a bit unfortunate that the proof-of-work chosen is not work that benefits humanity in any way.
The proof-of-work model chosen by Bitcoin is the most straightforward, and arguably, the most resistant to Sybil nodes and “cheating”. It is, after all, consciously modelled after physical mining, which is also arguably wasted work - dig up X tons of ore to extract Y kilos of precious metal.
The value of blockchains isn’t the currency systems implemented on them- it’s the general distributed ledger. There are useful problems that can be solved by storing information in public, validated with proof-of-work, with conflicts in history being resolved by consensus.
Coins are the carnival barker trying to push traffic into the system. Do the grueling proof-of work, and we give you an entry in the ledger that says you own some coins. Get in quick though (at least with Bitcoin), because there aren’t very many. But that means the value can only go up! They’ll get rarer over time!
Yes the inflation model of btc is fundamentally unsustainable. Also it’s a bit unfortunate that the proof-of-work chosen is not work that benefits humanity in any way.
The proof-of-work model chosen by Bitcoin is the most straightforward, and arguably, the most resistant to Sybil nodes and “cheating”. It is, after all, consciously modelled after physical mining, which is also arguably wasted work - dig up X tons of ore to extract Y kilos of precious metal.
Do you have any good reading that you can recommend about cryptocurrencies?
This is a lovely coinage (no pun intended).