New Mind video- Bitcoin mining, global co2 emissions??

[Aaron_W]

My brother and I were talking about bitcoin yesterday. I then saw this video offered by New Mind.
I’m probably more confused now. I never knew about the inherent energy demands of this currency.

I guess you don’t use a shovel to mine for bitcoins

If you are like me and curious about this currency, you may enjoy this video. I am motivated to find out more about it.
My conservative nature prevents me from investing in something that I just don’t understand.

I'm still adapting to our near cashless society, but at least I understand the concept, I can still go to the ATM and take out some bits of paper. Crypto is still science fiction to me for now.

A computer is a 100% efficient electric power to heat converter, just like an electric heater. The miner computers generate so much waste heat that you can heat your house with them. Only mine bitcoin in the winter, and you might actually make a (slight) profit on the power use.

Sounds like a good reason to invest in some sterling engine generators and acreage in the Yukon or Northern Alaska.

 

[Reddinr]

So I bought 10,000 bitcoin at $12.60 and I sold it all recently at $59,120 each. I'm going to buy everyone a beer.

Or maybe that was just a dream. I may have dozed off.

That's the type of rags-to-riches story that makes me briefly fear that I am missing out. But, you don't hear much from the ones that lose 90% of what they put in. There are lots of those cases too. It is guaranteed since it is mostly (all?) just speculation and a zero-sum game. For person A to get rich, persons B, C, D... have to get a little poorer.

For me, I have enough understanding of regular, conservative, diversified investing to get me by and have a reasonable retirement because of it (even including the little dips we face these days). If anyone wants to bet some hard-earned cash on the equivalent of a roulette wheel spin though, who am I to argue? The same goes for individual stock "bets" and the lottery in my opinion. And NFTs? P.T. Barnum should have come up with that one. So, I'm out and, get off my lawn. Buy ME a beer if you win big!

I have to give the crypto people great credit for their ads during the super bowl. Having Larry David play the old-school, always wrong know-it-all sage was perfect. Now the kids are pre-primed to discount advice from older adults that have seen these things come and go.

 

[great white]

there was a time when coin mining was actually do-able by the average person. But it's gone just stupid, like everything else these days. It's just not worth the average guy's effort to mine (IMHO).

We have what's known as a "Deifenbunker" in our province. In a nutshell, it's a cold war bomb shelter for the Canadian gov't set up by Prime Minister Deifenbaker way back when. It's long since been decommissioned. It's a massive underground complex (offices, living quarters, water supply, food storage, Broadcasting rooms, etc) as you would expect a 1960's era gov't nuclear bomb shelter would be.

The installation was purchased by a private company and they moved in racks and racks and racks of computer banks and they mine bitcoin there now. The facility is underground, so it's easy to control the environment and they use the massive natural reservoirs of cold ground water to cool everything. Solar panel farms all over the place. It's actually quite an ingenious set up.

If you go to their website, there's very little mention of "mining" operations, just lots of talk about fair standards in gaming, betting and vague statements about "blockchain". But I've been there and talked to a couple of their engineers. They're mining for cryptocurrency as much as anything else that they're doing. They just don't like being very public about it, for whatever their reasons is.

But that's the kind of thing the average guy is competing against if you want try and mine bitcoins on something like your laptop or tower computer.

Like every thing else these days, big money forces everybody out in a mad rush to make obscene profits and then does everything it can to keep everything out of the hands of the average Joe.

I swear I don't even recognize this world anymore.....I'm not even sure I want to recognize it anymore.

 

[vtcnc]

But can any of you guys truly say you really comprehend the stock market and economics in general?

Lol. Nope, I cannot.

 

[vtcnc]

I swear I don't even recognize this world anymore.....I'm not even sure I want to recognize it anymore.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...just faster, bigger and deeper.

 

[Janderso]

Just last week I set up Apple pay on my phone.
After watching the first bitcoin video I had more questions. I found this Ted talk on wtf is bitcoin.
This video illustrates the complexity and voodoo magic of the crypto currency.
Someone said, they are afraid they may be missing out by not investing in bitcoin.
Right now, bitcoin is around $20,000. This is the lowest it’s been in a couple years. It has gone up to $68,000 within this time frame. That’s tempting to say the least. Will it come back up? Probably?

Want to get more confused?

 

[Janderso]

Lol. Nope, I cannot.

The lessons learned over the past one hundred years in the stock market, may not be valid moving forward.
It seems the game is changing.
Traditionally if we were in a bear market, the bond market and the price of gold and silver would go up. That’s not how it works now.
Day traders have influenced the game as well. Imho

 

[C-Bag]

They're mining for cryptocurrency as much as anything else that they're doing. They just don't like being very public about it, for whatever their reasons is.

There were a couple of HUGE mining operations in N.China that we’re taking advantage cheap power and cool conditions, until the regime turned against Bitcoin. So what we seem to be seeing globally is gov’s taking this seriously and seeing it as a threat to their control. So they are going after it and that’s part of the huge fluctuations.

One of my favorite podcasters is Lex Fridman because as an academic, scientist, musician and martial artist with Jewish background from Russia I hear skepticism that aligns with mine. He asks the questions that come up for me as he talks to his guests. And several of his guests are from the founding Bitcoin world. What I always came away with was it was a cool concept like so many, that was perverted and weaponized by unscrupulous jerks. The idea your $$ could be gotten off the grid and free of the global system and be retrieved without being tracked was brilliant. I don’t think Shetoshi meant it as a way to make money, but many an inventor didn’t see their inventions as a weapon when they came up with it.

 

[Nutfarmer]

If I am going to mine something, I want to be able to hold it and see it. Gold ,silver and oil come to mind. Something that has an intrinsic value.

 

[vtcnc]

If I am going to mine something, I want to be able to hold it and see it. Gold ,silver and oil come to mind. Something that has an intrinsic value.

And then what?