undefined | Better HN

0 pointspaulgb5y ago0 comments

> At best we got some additional chip fabrication capacity, but crypto continues to eat that.

That’s the funny thing about this genre of arguments (Bitcoin improves GPU tech; Bitcoin subsidizes clean energy) — even if true, the gains will only be realized if there’s a crypto price crash, since otherwise mining absorbs the gains that it is responsible for by definition.

0 comments

3 comments · 1 top-level

incrudible5y ago· 2 in thread

Not at all, the refinement in semiconductor production is a permanent benefit into the future for every computing application. GPU mining has only caused temporary shortages three times in the past 10 years. Prices don't need to crash either, due to difficulty adjustment the profit will trend towards marginal cost, which can only be reduced with better technology.

paulgbOP5y ago

Improvements in semiconductor manufacturing would happen either way eventually; to the extent that Bitcoin accelerates them it is (by definition) by creating the demand that necessitates them.

incrudible5y ago

It's not zero-sum. These improvements are externalities, they are permanent and apply to all other uses of computing.

Similarly, one can point out all the advances that the Apollo program brought that are unrelated to space travel. COVID brought in lots of scientific insights that will bear fruit regardless of whether we have to deal with any other coronaviruses in the future.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse