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ildon | 4 years ago

> The only thing it requires is that you have hash power and internet connectivity.

Your argument is a bit naive and this sentence I quoted is the one that shows the reason. Proof of Work is a energy intensive activity, not to mention the specialized tech it requires.

Access to energy today is more than ever a sign of the power (including military power) of a nation, so much that energy itself could be regarded as the ultimate currency [1]. Who has more energy is richer. In short that is because nations with abundance of energy enable all sort of activities. In nations in which energy is scarce, opportunities are constrained by the cost of energy.

Because energy in the world is still a relatively scarce resource, powerful nations control natural resources needed to produce energy in any way they can. The obvious example is oil, but also land itself can be seen as a means to produce energy: think of the space needed for solar.

So in the end when talking about Bitcoin we are back at square one. Even if it was the only currency of the world, it would still be controlled by those with more power.

In short: Bitcoin is governed by spending energy and CPU -> ability to produce energy and CPU -> control over means of production of energy and CPU -> international strength ensuring control over natural resources and IP.

[1] https://youtu.be/dcIQdlud88c

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Valakas_|4 years ago

Bitcoin is not governed by spending energy and CPU. In fact all miners on earth could disappear except a guy with a Pentium IV on his basement doing all the BTC mining on the world, and it would still work. The difficulty of the hashing would adjust so that it would be possible for his weak slow guesses to send a block every 10 min.

FabHK|4 years ago

And, like deployment of military power ("proof of violence by the state"), proof of work has significant harmful externalities.