Cryptocurrency as a environmental possibilism

[Believemee]

It is key to draw our attention to one of ancient geographic theory which is the ENVIRONMENTAL POSSIBILISM THEORY. Possibilism can be observed in any situation where man conquers its environment, making the environment more suitable for his day to day activities and creating new artificial features. Cryptocurrency is a typical example of possibilism. Based on the concept of sustainable development of any nation Cryptocurrency is becoming a vital instrument for transactions,investment,Income and giving job opportunities to many even in time of pandemic. crypto currency is a big breakthrough to man and environmentally friendly.

[hatshepsut93]

Based on the concept of sustainable development of any nation Cryptocurrency is becoming a vital instrument for transactions,investment,Income and giving job opportunities to many even in time of pandemic. crypto currency is a big breakthrough to man and environmentally friendly.

Based on what are you saying that crypto is "becoming a vital instrument for transactions,investment,income" ? There's no data that shows that crypto is playing any notable role in economy. If it all disappeared tomorrow, most people wouldn't even feel it. They'd only read about it in news, and that's it.

And as for enviromental friendliness, this is questionable. PoW, which is the only way to actually have a decentralized cryptocurrency suitable for global needs, is notoriously power intensive. So, there isn't any big improvement here over traditional financial infrastructure.

[Upgrade00]

And as for enviromental friendliness, this is questionable. PoW, which is the only way to actually have a decentralized cryptocurrency suitable for global needs, is notoriously power intensive. So, there isn't any big improvement here over traditional financial infrastructure.

There are actually improvements to the traditional infrastructure; Bitcoin mining setups are power intensive but are majorly run on renewable energy, report from last year by Coinshares research says that around 74% of overall mining power is gotten from renewable sources.
The Bitcoin mining sector also functions as the 'buyer of last resort', so rather than it putting a strain on available power, it utilizes unused energy, reducing losses and could be a major economic driver in future.

...any situation where man conquers its environment, making the environment more suitable for his day to day activities and creating new artificial features. Cryptocurrency is a typical example of possibilism.

It may not yet be conquering the world, but a system that gives users; financial freedom, full control and (pseudo-)anonymiity, while having other unique qualities comes very close to it, imo. It's still a growing technology and there are lots of years to fix the issues in scaling.

[hatshepsut93]

There are actually improvements to the traditional infrastructure; Bitcoin mining setups are power intensive but are majorly run on renewable energy, report from last year by Coinshares research says that around 74% of overall mining power is gotten from renewable sources.
The Bitcoin mining sector also functions as the 'buyer of last resort', so rather than it putting a strain on available power, it utilizes unused energy, reducing losses and could be a major economic driver in future.

And banks don't have any mining at all, so they don't have to spend any energy on that. And right now Bitcoin only covers how many, 700k transactions per day? This is nothing compared to Visa. Until LN is widely adopted, Bitcoin network is less efficient at per transaction basis.

Also, enviromental impact of both banks and Bitcoin is tiny compared to industries like transportation or agriculture. Even if they were 100% green, it still wouldn't make any difference.

[rexxarofmoknathal]

crypto currency is a big breakthrough to man and environmentally friendly.

I'm not that certain that many people would take up on that, the data so far has pointed towards cryptocurrency as NOT being environmentally friendly due to mining. At least, this is one of the main arguments I get trying to explain the benefits of digital currency over fiat.

Indeed, crypto is a new technological breakthrough and the after effect caused from its mining in the larger scheme of things and in comparison to other activities like deforestation and oil rigs it is not a 'great' threat to the environment unlike the former methods but it is one nonetheless.

 However, when looking at a problem like this I believe one should always consider the pros and cons, and it is my opinion that crypto's benefits far outweigh the 'eco' related issue - one which can even be solved with more technology like hydrogen fuel, hydro powers, solar cells etc. All we need is technology!

[Upgrade00]

And banks don't have any mining at all, so they don't have to spend any energy on that.

The absence of a need for mining gear presents with a problem as there is no other provable backing for fiat currencies besides trust in the system. The gold standard used couple of years ago served as a means of backing up currencies by real value and was adopted by many countries, but has long been dropped.
Bitcoin's algorithm offers such proof of value while still being environmentally friendly. I would call that an improvement.

And right now Bitcoin only covers how many, 700k transactions per day? This is nothing compared to Visa. Until LN is widely adopted, Bitcoin network is less efficient at per transaction basis.

I doubt the ability of Bitcoin to scale up to certain levels, but it is a growing technology with lots of room for improvements, so I wouldn't want to nip it in the bud. A couple of BIPs aimed at improving scalability has already been implemented and some like Schnorr and Taproot are yet to be.

Also, enviromental impact of both banks and Bitcoin is tiny compared to industries like transportation or agriculture. Even if they were 100% green, it still wouldn't make any difference.

This is an excerpt from the article I linked in the first reply:
"...This could help turn loss making renewables projects
profitable and in time — as the industry matures and
settles as permanent in the public eye — could act as a
driver of new renewables developments in locations
that were previously uneconomical."

[jossiel]

I've learned something new today, it's my first time to read that word, "possibilism".

environmentally friendly.

If you will dig some of the old news, you'll see how many of those articles were tackling how mining is costly affecting the environment. They only look to that perspective but they never understand what they're saying about bitcoin/cryptocurrency mining.

[n0ne]

I've learned something new today, it's my first time to read that word, "possibilism".

environmentally friendly.

If you will dig some of the old news, you'll see how many of those articles were tackling how mining is costly affecting the environment. They only look to that perspective but they never understand what they're saying about bitcoin/cryptocurrency mining.

In between the mining process was highly power consuming, but with continuous development the mining equipments with low power consumption and higher hash output have been developed. As in a quote compared to the environmental pollution from the mega industries what the banking and cryptocurrency network produce is very low. These days most of the mining farms were located on naturally cool regions to lower the power consumption and avoid separate power generation for the cooling purpose.

Maybe a survey or polling among the forum members helps in identifying how true is the possibilism theory associates with the cryptocurrencies.

[jossiel]

If you will dig some of the old news, you'll see how many of those articles were tackling how mining is costly affecting the environment. They only look to that perspective but they never understand what they're saying about bitcoin/cryptocurrency mining.

In between the mining process was highly power consuming, but with continuous development the mining equipments with low power consumption and higher hash output have been developed. As in a quote compared to the environmental pollution from the mega industries what the banking and cryptocurrency network produce is very low. These days most of the mining farms were located on naturally cool regions to lower the power consumption and avoid separate power generation for the cooling purpose.

Maybe a survey or polling among the forum members helps in identifying how true is the possibilism theory associates with the cryptocurrencies.

Yeah a lot of them want to cut the cost of electricity consumption and that's why many of them have invested to and dealt with the use of renewable energy. Those reports about bitcoin mining is affecting the environment only sees it wrong.

But look at the other industrial and manufacturing businesses, they're commited to more energy consumption and they're affecting more the environment.

[verita1]

Depending on the energy source, researchers estimate that crypto-mining can produce 3-15 million tons of global carbon emissions.

https://jsis.washington.edu/news/the-political-geography-and-environmental-impacts-of-cryptocurrency-mining/

Due to this knowledge there is a joint effort to reduce the negative impact by allowing crypto-miners to operate in areas with renewable energy sources to reduce costs.

[so98nn]

I am not sure how we are concerned about the use of electrcity by bitcoin mining because the article published back in 2019 states that BTC takes up only 0.21% of worlds supply! Reference

Thats really tiny value for it's world's operation and may not even bother the power spikes!

Articles does suggest that some countries are getting problems due to it because the countries are smaller and mining operations are heavy in their area. e.g. Iceland!

If we skip such countries then all over the globe it's not much impacting I believe.

This is already environmental friendly project tbh. 

[hatshepsut93]

The absence of a need for mining gear presents with a problem as there is no other provable backing for fiat currencies besides trust in the system. The gold standard used couple of years ago served as a means of backing up currencies by real value and was adopted by many countries, but has long been dropped.
Bitcoin's algorithm offers such proof of value while still being environmentally friendly. I would call that an improvement.

PoW doesn't not back Bitcoin's value, it's only goal is to make the network actually work, so that blocks can be organized in sequence. Bitcoin's value is purely speculative, which is why it's so volatile. You can't just burn a ton of electricity to produce something and then claim that it's backed by all that electricity so it's now worth something.

I doubt the ability of Bitcoin to scale up to certain levels, but it is a growing technology with lots of room for improvements, so I wouldn't want to nip it in the bud. A couple of BIPs aimed at improving scalability has already been implemented and some like Schnorr and Taproot are yet to be.

Certainly a lot of improvements will be made, and I don't want this to divert into a scalability debate, I'm just saying that for now and for the foreseeable future Bitcoin is nowhere near close to have the same capacity as the payment networks that are used now.

[rollingdice]

Speaking in terms of the environmental possibilism, almost every invention is an example of possibilism. No matter it is a gold coin, fiat money or a cryptocurrency.

[Gozie51]

It is key to draw our attention to one of ancient geographic theory which is the ENVIRONMENTAL POSSIBILISM THEORY. Possibilism can be observed in any situation where man conquers its environment, making the environment more suitable for his day to day activities and creating new artificial features. Cryptocurrency is a typical example of possibilism. Based on the concept of sustainable development of any nation Cryptocurrency is becoming a vital instrument for transactions,investment,Income and giving job opportunities to many even in time of pandemic. crypto currency is a big breakthrough to man and environmentally friendly.

I understand your view here about environmental possibilism, it simply that talking about human conquering his environment and this is true. Bitcoin mining are all a product of human environment. Production and ability to make something out from the environment is the difference between human and animal.

[Assface16678]

There are a lot of misconceptions regarding bitcoin.

One of these is when a person got already invested into the world of cryptocurrency or bitcoin they will not earn a lot with this coin right now some countries already support and banned the use of the bitcoin and we cannot deny this.

Some of them don't want to regulate the use of this to prevent having a decentralized transaction because they want to monitor all of those TX.

Some of the country who is supporting the use of it just make some changes most likely the use is the transaction


Now if we are trying to talk about the use of the bitcoin most likely the miners who get bitcoin they are consuming a lot of electricity and where we got those? Of course to our environments like natural sources, wind, water, and more. Still, for me, bitcoin is one of the best things but still, it makes add to energy consumption.

[dothebeats]

Yea.. no. Bitcoin was created to abhor the anti-freedom ways of the banks and the government when it comes to people handling their money. Nature has nothing to do with the causation of the development of bitcoin, and in fact you can say that bitcoin is not that eco-friendly on its early boom since most are using power sources from traditional ways (coal). It is only as of recent years that most miners switched to eco-friendly ways to mine bitcoin, mainly because of operating costs and again, not directly about caring for the environment.

I would say bitcoin is created due to determinism. The 2008 recession, the amount of huge companies that laid off thousands of workers yet the higher-ups received enormous bonuses; the disparity in wealth between the rich and the poor.. I could go on. It is mostly the unfairness of the current system--as outline by Satoshi himself on some of his posts--that led him to synthesize all known works tackling about decentralized currencies and merge it into one working thing. I could be wrong though, but from the way how I see things, the need for bitcoin only arose when previous systems gravely failed the masses.

[DatKing]

Cryptocurrencies are still not totally environmental I think. Yes, it provides new opportunities for people even in this pandemic period. But for example; Bitcoin mining still needs a huge amount of electricity usage and there is still no alternative for this problem.