The problem I have tearing crypto apart is that I don’t really understand it technically at all detailed level. My objections are all philosophical. It uses up a ton of energy so people can speculate and do arbitrage. How is that worth it? I’ve used it to pay journalists in Afghanistan and appreciate that but I’d rather all this energy be spent ending sanctions. What am I missing?

I’ve been researching ‘data warming’ for years, including blockchains.

Bitcoin’s PoW energy use is rising, while Ethereum’s switch to PoS cut its energy use by 99.9% which is a win worth celebrating

Energy use in digital systems is a real issue, but it feels like it's been overhyped for blockchains and embedded itself into the psyche of the public. Meanwhile AI and other computing face little scrutiny.

Makes you wonder why?

Researcher at MIT Media Lab | Creating futures | https://cyrus.website/info

because folks on the left believe that "crypto bad" is the in-group accepted opinion that they should hold and energy use is an easy explainer for why. of course it's a superficial belief, they've probably never even thought about most of this stuff.

interesting-do you have any data to show it's a left thing? 

i don't really have good data on that but this came up showing >60% of Americans are skeptical and I don't think that many people are left leaning in the US

Farcaster-native research: https://paragraph.xyz/@matthewb | prev. Juicebox, Nouns, RAW DAO | casting about coffee, hi-fi, and other rabbit holes

ehh I don’t have time to research this atm but pretty clear that dems are more likely to be anti-crypto and republicans more pro-crypto

just look at Warren’s “anti-crypto army” campaign as an example of her own market research pointing to that messaging as a viable strategy to win votes

interesting-do you have any data to show it's a left thing? 

i don't really have good data on that but this came up showing >60% of Americans are skeptical and I don't think that many people are left leaning in the US 

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/24/majority-of-americans-arent-confident-in-the-safety-and-reliability-of-cryptocurrency/