People need to understand that there is a difference between cryptocurrencies that have their own blockchain, and tokens that ride on smart contracts on those same blockchains.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are two examples of cryptocurrencies with their own blockchains. This means that new coins are released periodically based on some algorithm that all nodes agree on, and the rules can’t be changed arbitrarily.
(Ironically, the first real memecoin, Dogecoin, is basically a clone of Bitcoin with some tweaks, but it has its own blockchain and its own set of rules).
Neary all of these memecoins (Dogecoin being the main exception) do not have their own blockchains at all. They are just smart contracts riding on top of Ethereum or one of its clones. Anyone can make a new memecoin simply by starting a new smart contract. Anyone. You can literally make a new token with a marketable name out of nothing, with trillions of tradeble units, then send a bit to crypto exchanges and pay them to set up trading with the liquidity you just gave them. People start trading, and now this coin (you made from nothing) has a price attached. It may only be a fraction of a cent, but you have trillions. If it catches on, and the price goes up, you can now release more and sell it for real money.
You simply can’t do that with established currencies with their own blockchains, because the creation of new units is governed by so many rules. You could always create your own Bitcoin or Ethereum clone, but then you are stuck building your own validation network until other people decide it’s worth participating in validation. The only entities who have been successful doing this lately are exchanges (who then use their captive exchange coin to enable smart contracts to sell shitcoins on).
So yes, memecoins are scams. Crypto on its own blockchain is not, but if it’s main use is to enable scams then what’s the difference? Bitcoin, Ethereum, and (ironically) Dogecoin are fundamentally different than most shitcoins (and the exchange-owned Ethereum clones that only exist to enable trading in more shitcoins.)
Crypto is fundamentally a scam. It serves no purpose. The ecological trade offs are so massive that it should be made socially unacceptable like CSAM is.
The ecological impact is entirely optional. Not all cryptos consume massive amounts of power to validate transactions. Ethereum successfully transitioned away from a power-intensive algorithm and now has massively reduced power consumption
Setting aside that your link isn’t actually capable of estimating the usage to maintain ETH without accessing all of its users power consumption that’s a lot of power for something with no real use case beyond crime that currencies do not do better.
The main use case for cryptocurrency ought to be as a method of payment that relies on trusting no third party. Think Venmo or PayPal or Google Pay, without having to trust Venmo or PayPal or Google. You might not value not having to trust any 3rd party, but maybe you should.
But this is why I say the worst thing that ever happened to crypto was for its price to skyrocket. Because now nobody cares about trustless transactions, they just care about Number Go Up.
It’s not all proof of work. Crypto at its core is less a scam than, for example, the US dollar because it cannot be counterfeited, it can’t be privately fucked with, and everything that happens is auditable by the parties that need to, and not for those who don’t. It’s a far better foundation than what banks have built, which is effectively a bunch of shared ledgers but with humans at the helm.
Anyway… Just pointing out that your comment won’t age well 😜 Crypto is here to stay. Scams will be fewer and less successful as the tech matures. Remember the .com bubble? Did you curse the Internet itself then, too?
People need to understand that there is a difference between cryptocurrencies that have their own blockchain, and tokens that ride on smart contracts on those same blockchains.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are two examples of cryptocurrencies with their own blockchains. This means that new coins are released periodically based on some algorithm that all nodes agree on, and the rules can’t be changed arbitrarily. (Ironically, the first real memecoin, Dogecoin, is basically a clone of Bitcoin with some tweaks, but it has its own blockchain and its own set of rules).
Neary all of these memecoins (Dogecoin being the main exception) do not have their own blockchains at all. They are just smart contracts riding on top of Ethereum or one of its clones. Anyone can make a new memecoin simply by starting a new smart contract. Anyone. You can literally make a new token with a marketable name out of nothing, with trillions of tradeble units, then send a bit to crypto exchanges and pay them to set up trading with the liquidity you just gave them. People start trading, and now this coin (you made from nothing) has a price attached. It may only be a fraction of a cent, but you have trillions. If it catches on, and the price goes up, you can now release more and sell it for real money.
You simply can’t do that with established currencies with their own blockchains, because the creation of new units is governed by so many rules. You could always create your own Bitcoin or Ethereum clone, but then you are stuck building your own validation network until other people decide it’s worth participating in validation. The only entities who have been successful doing this lately are exchanges (who then use their captive exchange coin to enable smart contracts to sell shitcoins on).
So yes, memecoins are scams. Crypto on its own blockchain is not, but if it’s main use is to enable scams then what’s the difference? Bitcoin, Ethereum, and (ironically) Dogecoin are fundamentally different than most shitcoins (and the exchange-owned Ethereum clones that only exist to enable trading in more shitcoins.)
Crypto is fundamentally a scam. It serves no purpose. The ecological trade offs are so massive that it should be made socially unacceptable like CSAM is.
The ecological impact is entirely optional. Not all cryptos consume massive amounts of power to validate transactions. Ethereum successfully transitioned away from a power-intensive algorithm and now has massively reduced power consumption
https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption
Bitcoin could do the same thing, but won’t, because it’s development team doesn’t want to.
Setting aside that your link isn’t actually capable of estimating the usage to maintain ETH without accessing all of its users power consumption that’s a lot of power for something with no real use case beyond crime that currencies do not do better.
The main use case for cryptocurrency ought to be as a method of payment that relies on trusting no third party. Think Venmo or PayPal or Google Pay, without having to trust Venmo or PayPal or Google. You might not value not having to trust any 3rd party, but maybe you should.
But this is why I say the worst thing that ever happened to crypto was for its price to skyrocket. Because now nobody cares about trustless transactions, they just care about Number Go Up.
Crypto primarily being speculative is a big problem.
It’s not all proof of work. Crypto at its core is less a scam than, for example, the US dollar because it cannot be counterfeited, it can’t be privately fucked with, and everything that happens is auditable by the parties that need to, and not for those who don’t. It’s a far better foundation than what banks have built, which is effectively a bunch of shared ledgers but with humans at the helm.
Anyway… Just pointing out that your comment won’t age well 😜 Crypto is here to stay. Scams will be fewer and less successful as the tech matures. Remember the .com bubble? Did you curse the Internet itself then, too?
Do you really believe this? Musk-has fucked with multiple currencies just because he could. Crypto is incredibly vulnerable to manipulation.
which is true for banks
Given your errors so far I don’t think you should be judging the soundness of banking or currencies.