Quote from: RTonietto on March 21, 2014, 01:23:03 PM

Once again, the "prophets of apocalypse" are forgetting the most precious natural resource that exists: human creativity. As the bitcoin market increases and attracts bigger companies, the competition for the fastest mining machines will eventually lead to more investment on improving the power efficiency of current processors. And this will not only benefit bitcoin mining, but also any other heavy processing tasks. It can even improve the energy consumption of cell phones, for example, and that would lead to more durable batteries, which is another pollution source today. And, if the mining costs begin to reach the value of their rewards, the interest in mining will simply diminish, reducing the amount of complexity and again making it profitable. That's simply supply and demand, and it was not invented with bitcoin. It's a concept motivated by basic human instincts, and has been present in our lives since pre-history.

Or digital innovation occurs sans "mining". Which is the much simpler solution. The only motivation to retain the characteristics of bitcoin that miners think are essential is from miners, who have sort of formed a guild and now are acting sort of like a proto-state in that they are willing to use force to enforce their monopoly on the currency.

Look at the "Operation Shitcoins" thread. That is a window where one can view a proto-state in the making. Amazing, eh?

One thing must be said. The "bitcoin" phenomena is a lot more interesting than it appears at first blush.

It's social ramifications go WAAAAY beyond "Hey, free money on the computer!".