I agree with the environmental impact, but I do not agree that bitcoin fixes it. Have you seen the resources it takes to power one of these corporate bitcoin mining facilites? I am a crypto miner myself and in 2019-2021 I toured several of these facilities and saw them first hand to study them in hopes to build a facility like that one day. Instead now, I have a hobby mine partially ran on solar, but still mostly on grid. I also invest in some of these corporate mining companies and make money on them through the market that way. My point is, I have done the research, not just read headlines or watched a youtube video. Many of the same or similar issues apply to Bitcoin mining facilities. It's the same with any large factory, plant, or data center. So, there is the reality of it, and there is the dream and the lie of it all being done on clean and alternative energy, which it simply is not.
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The big difference is that digital mining naturally flows toward cheapest (ideally trapped) energy sources compared to gold mining's move towards environmental mining solutions. This seems largely due to the chemical aspects surrounding gold mining. It seems like a very small orange compared to a very large apple to me; when comparing energy use of digital mining to the environmental damage surrounding gold mining. One seems a negative due to its dependence on a secondary system which is working to be made more environmentally friendly while the other does not appear to be moving, at least at the same velocity, as the other.
It does flow to the cheapest energy, but that is not always clean energy. Plus with the constant growth in computational needs, the need for more and more of that cheap energy is needed, so therefore it has to be extracted, processed, and converted in some way. Hell even 'clean energy' requires mining or other environmental disturbing methods. Again, it's dream vs reality. Plus now with AI, hell most of the corporate mining companies shifting to building out AI infrastructure, so that is only going to make it worse.
To each their own one may say.
Just before the pandemic my Sister-In-Law told me about accounts one can set up here in Kanada. By depositing a minimum of $15k one could trade out of it and not suffer the curse of capital gains tax. It seemed like a private club that only those that could afford the $15k could get membership. My feeling is that it is little more than that.
Once the account was set up, @dollarvigilante gave a good tip on a mining stock. The company was asset rich, having just taken over another mining company. Ironically @dollarvigilante was the one who made me aware of STEEM back in the day.
The stock took off and a few thousand was made in less than a week. It all had a tainted smell to me; from the elite aspect of the tax free account to the gains in such short order. It was then that some research was done about the mining industry itself.
My decision was to sell off, close the account and buy digital gold with the fiat. That investment has done well over that time. One can argue that it is a negative investment as far as the environment goes; yet gold mining seemed much more destructive and disruptive to both peoples and their environment to me.
Some don't take ethics into their investment decisions and that it understandable to me. To each their own is my motto in that regard; yet to put Bitcoin mining on an equal footing to gold mining, in that regard, is not a view we share.
Best of luck with your investments though.
Eh, I have done the research by going to these mining facilities and data centers personally to see the operations first hand. My cousin is in the gold and silver mining business in Colorado, and expanding his store business to Texas. I have seen his operations as well, so I also have a big understanding of that industry. I mean I have a small hobby farm at home that I am building solar infra for, so I am still doing my thing, but not on huge scale like I had dreamed before.
Like I said earlier, I don't disagree about the environmental impact, but I promise Bitcoin doesn't fix it, that was the whole point, not about which investment is better. I have tried to get into this industry in a real way myself, so I've done the actual digging. I mean I have BTC too...
I don't listen to random hyperbolic influencers online, especially that dude, lol. I tried for a while, but he's really kind of an idiot that is just smart enough to have smart people behind him. Respect for him doing the anarchist thing though, I give him that much, lol.
You are probably right with Jeff and smart people. Have never taken a tip from him that has not paid off for me, though. Lost track of him since he was pushed to the hinterland of social media.
Oh yeah, his calls pay off because of the analysts he has working with him are really solid. You can just tell by his vocabulary that he himself isn't the smartest crayon in the box, he's the big picture guy and just has a great team behind him.