Quote from: zimmah on January 08, 2014, 01:34:44 PM

Quote from: globalkeith on December 12, 2013, 07:03:37 AM

Ok, so forgive my ignorance here, but am I right in thinking that as a result of Bitcoin and the literally hundreds of alternate currencies springing up daily, we, the human race are using BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS of processing cycles to calculate worthless sums? I say worthless because the hashing is mostly wasted effort, am I right in understanding that?

Surely the logical next step here is to make this ENORMOUS BOTNET calculate something useful? I'm thinking of solving science questions, SETI, fighting cancer, or any other distributed software projects, that kind of thing?

Do any of the alt currencies attempt to tackle this, or are we still a way off actually utilising these CPU/GPU cycles for the good of our species and/the planet.

OK, forgive my ignorante here, but am I right in thinking that as a result of dollars and other fiat currency being printed daily, we the human race are using tons of ink and paper to print worthless bills? I say worthless because money serves basically no purpose, am I right in understanding that?

Seriously the ink and money would be much better used to print text books filled with knowledge, so that students that read those books may eventually become the doctors that cure cancer or the scientists that make great breakthroughs for the benefit of all humans. That kind of things.

Do any of the fiat currencies try to accomplish this? Or are we still letting them walk away with printing money purely for their own profit, while still increasing taxes and at the same time decreasing the service they provide?

Not to mention the coins that are still minted .......