Sweden asks EU to ban Bitcoin mining...

https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/26/sweden_bitcoin_mining_ban/

by oblib • 5 years ago

64 37 5 years ago

Pick-A-Hill2019• 5 years ago

" ... and to legally prevent anyone doing it from calling it eco-friendly."

Ok, that bit I can agree with.

Buuuttt, what I have a problem with is this - if Sweden / EU wants to ban crypto mining then simply create a specific industry code [1] that covers crypto mining and legislate/tax accordingly.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Industrial_Classifica...

1cvmask• 5 years ago

What if I generated my own electricity from solar in say sunny Spain or Portugal.

beirut_bootleg• 5 years ago

Yes, please do! And go ahead and use that energy to power your every day needs: lighting, cooking, heating and entertainment. Now tell me which of those categories Bitcoin falls under. Solar energy may be virtually infinite, but solar panels are not. If you really care about being eco-friendly, then you better put them to good use.

kobalsky• 5 years ago

Now tell me which of those categories Bitcoin falls under

Where do I put my workstation? I mean I do watch youtube on it sometimes but I mostly work with it... and it does heat up the room but that's mostly a side effect and not a feature. Please help.

chii• 5 years ago

you better put them to good use

and why do you get to decide what a "good use" is for somebody else?

squarefoot• 5 years ago

You would still be generating lots of heat with all those GPUs crunching numbers every day, and possibly even more to cool them down. And there's also chips scarcity, in which I'm sure the pandemic isn't the only culprit.

Cryptocurrencies should be banned everywhere, unless we find a way to send a mining farm in space; but they're doing only damage here on Earth.

Nevermark2• 5 years ago

Proof of stake and proof of history have already arrived as alternatives to your dilemma.

Replacing legacy tech (proof of work, in this case) isn't trivial, but better than banning a whole new industry for an already solved legacy problem.

brippalcharrid• 5 years ago

Doesn't matter, you still don't get to just use that electricity for whatever you want. Why would you want to participate in a decentralized financial network, anyway? Now go sit in a dark room and recite the Law of Jante seven times.

fivea3• 5 years ago

What if I generated my own electricity from solar in say sunny Spain or Portugal.

I'm not sure about Portugal, but nowadays Spain is undergoing a really rough time with historically high energy prices due to its overreliance on gas as it's energy source.

gefhfff• 5 years ago

Please do it!

Tbh, while I'd welcome it, I'd prefer rigorous Carbon pricing with dividends

exabrial• 5 years ago

Do it. And ban any "proof of work" crypto

CuriousCosmic• 5 years ago

I would put a caveat on this. If there is to be a ban, it should only ban "non-useful" proof of work. There's a growing body of research on Proofs of Useful Work and squashing that body of research seems to be short-sighted.

Rebelgecko• 5 years ago

If proof of work is outlawed, then only outlaws will have proof of work. Imagine if 10 raspberry pis in Libya was all it took to hijack every Blockchain

Nevermark2• 5 years ago

Not a concern. People have already imagined proof of stake, and proof of history into existence.

lamp987• 5 years ago

so state should be deciding what algorithms im not allowed run on my computer? thats absurd and fascist

rowanG0772• 5 years ago

It's not deciding what algorithms you are allowed to run. It only has to be actually useful. If you find the bitcoin algorithm has use then you are free to run it. If you consider that fascist. Then it's also fascist that you aren't allowed to burn trash in your own backyard, which is illegal in many countries. The government is simply doing the job it's supposed to. Protecting their subjects.

sn_master3• 5 years ago

Try being a Lebanese or Turkish or any of dozen African countries with hyperinflation.

Only the rich in those countries managed to exchange their local currency for foreign cash in time, everyone else saw their life savings vanish in front of their own eyes except the very few who converted their local currency to crypto in time when they saw the chips falling.

BitCoin allows kind of international currency bank account for everyone and anyone who needs it for minimal cost.

That besides the large markets for illegal goods, which is another cornerstone that's not gonna go away any time soon either, with people more or less being forced to buy crypto to get their goods.

Rd6n6• 5 years ago

What happens to people’s money during inflation when that money is tied up in stocks or mutual funds rather than in savings? Does the inflation affect the stock prices, and partially protect you from the inflation?

sn_master3• 5 years ago

During hyperinflation the entire economy tanks, and the stock market will reflect that, if not worse (companies going bankrupt and you losing everything).

And, in those countries, investing in stocks is only for the upper class in general. It's nowhere as easy as in the US, and many of them don't even have a stock market or anything similar in the first place.

Closest alternative is buying precious metals like gold, but then you run into the risk of fakes, theft and difficulty of transportation.

fivea3• 5 years ago

Try being a Lebanese or Turkish or any of dozen African countries with hyperinflation.

Aren't you arguing in favour of capital flight instead of crypto?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_flight

BitCoin allows kind of international currency bank account for everyone and anyone who needs it for minimal cost.

That doesn't really explain why should, say, Sweden or the EU be forced to pay, say, Turkey or Lebanon's ecological footprint of it's capital flight.

_aavaa_2• 5 years ago

That doesn't really explain why should, say, Sweden or the EU be forced to pay, say, Turkey or Lebanon's ecological footprint of it's capital flight.

It is Turkey and Lebanon today, it was Greece yesterday, it could be Sweden tomorrow.

Banning it now means it won't be there if it's needed in the future.

scotty792• 5 years ago

Can't they just state in service agreement with people they sell electricity to, that this electricity is not allowed to be used for mining cryptocurrencies?

And if they discover it is they would just stop selling electricity to that person/entity?

sn_master3• 5 years ago

Why stop? Just raise the price. That's what WA state started doing.

jobigoud• 5 years ago

Who is they? There are many electricity providers to choose from, with various levels of eco-friendliness.

scotty792• 5 years ago

They = energy producers and sellers.

They are surely under some control of Swedish government. Energy sector is largely regulated everywhere.

AlchemistCamp• 5 years ago

The Europe mostly missed the boat with the current era of web platforms. With enough regulation, maybe the result will be missing Web 3 as well.

I don't think so, though. France in particular, seems to have a lot of energy in its blockchain tech scene.

DarthNebo• 5 years ago

I hate to see this being used as a blanket ban for anything that is not productive? Who is to say any GPU cluster experiments being done at banks/companies to "try out a new model" isn't along the same lines?

Telling what people can't do with their own compute/resources is just too much.

jinpa_zangpo• 5 years ago

All roads lead to El Salvador and its geothermal powered Bitcoin City.

Sweden asks EU to ban Bitcoin mining...

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