VIDEO: Is This the End of Crypto?
Added 2022-12-07 15:00:09 +0000 UTCI apparently do crypto updates once every few months. No but seriously, I’m pretty hooked on following this. Not because I take one side or the other on how it’ll play out, but rather because it’s fascinating just to watch and try to understand. Which is why we brought back the debate format for this. I hope you enjoy!
- Johnny
Comments
Kinda related... Have you done a video yet on AI generated artwork? And if not... I would love to see a video from you on that topic 🙃
Matt Shellhammer
2022-12-24 01:42:51 +0000 UTCwow thanks so much for this message! really glad to have you here.
Johnny Harris
2022-12-08 18:34:26 +0000 UTCHey Johnny and team. I quite literally only found out your channel existed a few days ago when my younger brother sent me the qatar videos. I've been down the rabbit hole the last few day, watching tons of your videos. When I heard about the way you use Patreon thought it was just about the coolest thing ever and there was almost no question that I'd sign up. I've considered a career in investigative journalism before and this seems like a great little way to dip my toes and explore that a little.
Joe MacInnes
2022-12-08 09:36:38 +0000 UTCHey Johnny Swiss guy here, so looking very much forward to the Swiss video ;) Wanted to talk about the Crypto V2 video, first a couple of things that I think are great: 1. Mentioning that most ETH miners are just going to switch to another coin to mine, so the claim of the Ethereum foundation that it reduced the energy consumption by 0.2% is just false and a lie. 2. The fact that with proof of stake Ethereum created a way to centralize ETH even more and that this is bad. I would have hoped though for a bit more insight into this: A) to become an ETH validator you need 32 ETH staked, thats $38k and cannot be afforded by everybody, so it can only be done by people with $$$. B) The more ETH you stake the more likely you can validate transactions, which means that big companies with lots of $$$ will validate most transactions which is not what the idea behind decentralization is. C) transactions are actively censored by these validators, this means if the US governement doesn't like you and you are on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list, your transaction is actively sanctioned and you cannot use Ethereum anymore. Again not what we want with decentralization. These so called OFAC compliant blocks have massively increased since the merge (see https://www.mevwatch.info/) and unfortunately this basically means the governemnt controls ETH now. 3. Mentioning that Bitcoin does not have a central company/foundation/person like ETH and therefore Bitcoin will never move to proof-of-stake. I do feel though there could be a bit more nuance in the next video, let me pitch you some ideas: 1. Bitcoin already has a way to support thousands of transactions per Seconds, it's a 2nd Layer application called Lightning and is faster than any other Crypto or even Visa or Paypal (see more at https://twitter.com/blockstream/status/1502115599874359297). And as it is based on top of Bitcoin it has all the security and decentralization of Bitcoin, just faster. So the claim of Ethereum that they will make the fastest Blockchain is basically just more hot air. 2. You're mentioning in your video that Mining uses a lot of energy and that this is bad for the environment. I disagree and let me explain: A) Bitcoin mining is creating new demand which allows energy producers to have a guaranteed buyer, this means they can now build new green energy production (wind, solar, hydro) without need to worry about being able to sell it right back to the grid as the miners are buying it anyway. This increases the likelihood for new green energy projects to be built and therefore pushes the transition to green energy faster, than if the energy producers could only build a power plant if they really can sell it back to the grid. (more infos https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/bitcoin-promises-a-future-of-abundant-energy) B) Bitcoin miners create a base-load, when suddenly more energy is used in the system (like during special cold or warm weather), they will stop mining and allow the grid to use the energy for people to heat or cool their houses. If the bitcoin miners would not have been there, there would not have been such a base-load and the people could not get energy at all. (more infos here https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/15/crypto-energy-texas-power-grid/) C) And then there is another one: During oil drilling there is a lot of methane produced, but not enough to transport it with a second pipeline so it could be used. Therefore the methane is just burned and flared off. Unfortunately during this process around 30% of the methane gets into the atmosphere and creates more greenhouse effects. Bitcoin miners now bring gas generators to the oil drilling sites and they use 100% of the methane to run their miners. So this reduces methane emissions into the atmosphere. (more infos https://twitter.com/skorusARK/status/1551643109431382016) 3. You are covering Bitcoin as part of "Crypto" unfortunately I also disagree here. Bitcoin is the only Cryptocurrency that is completely decentralized and has no single company/person/foundation on top anymore. This makes it special and behaves like a commodity. The 20'000 other coins that are part of the "Crypto" space all have individual owners and therefore that makes them (according to the SEC) a security as there are individual people that could define the faith of these coins (ethereum for example had a 70% premine, which means that 70% of all ETH is owned by the creators, which is not the case at all with Bitcoin). I know this is all a lot, and I do understand that this is all super hard to understand, cover and also deliver in a 10min youtube video, I feel you are doing a great job on it! Just for the next one I think covering some more of the above would be awesome. Also I'm very very happy to help in any way, or point you to more reserach and people to talk to. And next time you are in Switzerland I can show you some more crazy bunkers ;)
Michael Schmid
2022-12-07 18:22:50 +0000 UTCNot sure if this document is of any interest, but this was published last February by the Congressional Research Service. It research on US Federal Government adopting a Digital currency. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46850
Moses McCall
2022-12-07 17:47:51 +0000 UTCGreat video, I learned a lot. Thanks for your hard work!
Jessica Jungman
2022-12-07 15:35:06 +0000 UTC
