r/InternationalNews • u/guyoffthegrid • 2d ago

Europe Russia bans crypto mining in multiple regions, citing energy concerns

https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/russia-bans-crypto-mining-in-multiple-regions-citing-energy-concerns-163102174.html
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u/devor110 2d ago

I wish more countries did the same.

I'm not a fan of any cryptocurrency, but at least ETH (and therefore most of its subsidiaries) switched go PoS and reduced their energy use drastically. Would I invest in them? No. Are they still full of all kinds of scummy tactics and outright scams? Yes. But at least they did that one thing right.

I have no idea how Bitcoin is managed, if it's truly decentralised, but I wonder if they could also migrate to PoS

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u/deepskydiver 2d ago

Proof Of Work is one of the core benefits of bitcoin. This is because philosophically it is better if anyone can earn money with the same work. Proof Of Stake is what every currency in the world is: the people with the money create new money.

I don't want that system.

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u/devor110 1d ago

Philosophically, sure

But in reality, you won't earn a cent by mining on a 10 year old GPU because people with capital have warehouses full of top end specialized hardware. Your chances of guessing the right hash against all of that is astronomically low. Thus, in actuality, the people with the money are the ones making more of it

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u/deepskydiver 1d ago

You're deliberately misrepresenting this now.

And somehow claiming that Proof of Stake (proof of assets) is .. better?

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u/devor110 17h ago

PoS is far better in terms of energy consumption, and since I don't care for the rest of it, I do prefer it

I'm well aware how Ethereum's PoS migration worked, high buy-in to become a validator, and only they can be awarded new currency as transactions get accepted.

Technically, yes, owning any amount of BTC doesn't directly help or hinder your opportunity to build a mining operation of any size, neither does not holding any. In reality, BTC isn't a currency, nobody uses it to actually purchase goods directly, it's financial instrument. Said instrument can be sold for FIAT currency, which can then be used to make whatever purchases are necessary for mining.

What I'm saying is that conventional wealth and BTC wealth are equally as capable of funding a mining rig. Therefore, the presently rich already are the ones making new money in the system.

Yes, technically speaking, any person running any kind of hardware has a chance to guess the correct hash for the next transaction, but you are essentially playing the lottery with 1 ticket vs players who all have 10% of all available tickets