I could see a lot of people make the argument the production of a lot of energy intensive goods is not worth-while.
Which is to say, discussing on HN is a valid way to contribute your opinion to society. Voting is not your only voice.
if enough people agree that a law should be passed, and it's a high enough priority, and the opinion stays that way for a long time, then eventually enough politicians get on board by virtue of pressure from their voting base, and a law gets passed.
It's not great.
But on the other hand, near-immediate direct democracy is also not great, because it leads to knee-jerk reactions causing laws put in place. I'm thinking of stuff like the USAPATRIOT Act, except worse.
It's literally regulation to stop "Proof of work". Which is a generic algorithm that can be applied to other circumstances.
It could have applications in CAPTCHA's, or anti-spam.
It could be a critical component of other decentralized technologies, not just blockchain crypto currencies.
Making this math illegal JUST to kill cyptocurrencies seems a tad much, right?
Governments already have regulations for energy efficiency, waste and pollution, and for most things it's possible to negotiate reasonable limits.
For PoW it's not possible. If you put an upper limit on its wastefulness, it'll be a limit on its security. Even if we had a Dyson Sphere, PoW would eventually eat more than half of it just to be secure.
Maybe in theory but in actuality it is comprised of moneyed interests which is why it needs to be limited to preserve the freedom of the people.
There will come a time when people like you -- who play God over others -- are ousted from society.
There are already laws in most countries forbidding you to litter, and you would never call that "playing God" - it just happens that littering with crypto mining is a multi billion dollar industry.
It's just not a realistic outlook on how typical people want society to function. Most people do not believe PoW cryptocurrency is important to society.
I disagree. If we must cap the CO2 we can emit, we should definitely favor basic needs over luxury. Here in France, the government tried to set a carbon tax on gas (which is required for many simply to commute to work, with no affordable alternatives yet) but they refused to impose a tax on jet fuel which is known to be used by the ultra rich to fly their privates on the weekends (while they can afford high speed trains).
We should not just let money decide what's possible, when so many are still in need of basic necessities. Many could pay a 300% tax just to fly 10x a year across the globe (emitting many, many times the carbon footprint of an average household). How would that be fair, when the problem is not what people pay but how the planet is becoming inhabitable?
I do not believe consensus mechanism other than PoW can provide enough security for a cryptocurrency
What's interesting, is that you can gather ~300 random citizens - including jet setters and cryptofans - and let them think about it for two years in order to decide what they considered as basic needs, on a consensus basis. And then, we can organize a vote (e.g a referendum) to make sure society finds a common ground on this (just like we do for most things, such as banning crime).
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Convention_for_Climat... for a good example.
I bet PoW would be far down the list of basic needs but it might, still. I like democracy (where people vote, not their fortune).
If carbon taxes go up, some things will no longer be worth spending energy on, but crypto mining is just competitive, so the value of mining will go up with the cost of energy and keep using as much energy as ever. The only thing that can stop it is reducing demand for the coins, which the government is not even trying to do yet.
That is not true. If the cost of energy increases, mining / hash rates will decrease. Miners are competing, and the limit to the price they will pay for electricity is the value of the cryptocurrency they are earning for the activity.
I am all for carbon taxes, to shape the market towards cleaner energy. And I do think it will successfully push miners even faster towards adoption of other energy sources.
