A systematic critique of Bitcoin's value proposition

from blog Rondam Ramblings, | ↗ original
1. Introduction1. IntroductionThis essay was originally entitled "Bitcoin's design contains the seeds of its own destruction". The thesis was going to be that Bitcoin's security depends entirely on consuming vast quantities of energy, and so any value it might offer is outweighed by its inherent costs. But when I did the math, that turns out not to be true. Bitcoin does use a lot of energy, but not nearly as much as I initially thought. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily good news....This essay was originally entitled "Bitcoin's design contains the seeds of its own destruction". The thesis was going to be that Bitcoin's security depends entirely on consuming vast quantities of energy, and so any value it might offer is outweighed by its inherent costs. But when I did the math, that turns out not to be true. Bitcoin does use a lot of energy, but not nearly as much as I initially thought. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily good news....