Nike_7688
Bora1114
I wouldn't recommend saying something doesn't benefit the world simply because you do not understand it.
I say this in a 100% interest in learning something. Please PM me with what it is I don't understand that is exactly how it benefits the world to have all that mathematical power go only to a financial benefit and not also be used for helpful distributed computing research. Here's a paper from 2014 suggesting as such and I still don't see it prevalent. I don't want to push this topic farther on this thread and mean no offense in any way, but I'm curious (hence the PM request). Cheers.
I'm posting this here in the hopes that more than 1 person reads this. I am not advocating for the usage of bitcoin, simply explaining why it should not be thought of as a "waste of energy" or "not helpful to the world". Everyone should do their own research.
Bitcoin serves 2 major functions at the moment for helping the world:
1. Decentralized transaction processing. You do not need to go get a debit card and have to rely on a bank or institution.
Instead you send your money, a decentralized network gets it where it needs to go.
2. A store of value. It is a deflationary currency which means the amount produced decreases over time unlike the USD. This means that as the USD loses its buying power BTC will retain its value.People having savings is a good thing, and retaining the value of their savings is important or they will just spend it.
All in all these are services many people take for granted as they are not available to many people in the world.
Decentralization is good as it prevents censorship and repression.
Many altcoins offer privacy which prevents tracing of goods and services purchased to them.
This benefits the world specifically in countries where the government can put you in prison for any reason.
Some altcoins allow for decentralized finance where you can loan individuals capital which they may not normally be able to access.
Some offer decentralized storage, where you can purchase cloud storage for your scientific needs.
Some offer decentralized rendering.
Some offer tipping.
Some offer ad placement.
Some offer tokenization of assets.
etc.
There are more uses out there than i could mention and many of them will go down the drain but some of these will likely be used by many people.
Then the argument of energy usage begins. People fail to understand that large farms tend to be in locations of high reusable energy.
They go where the energy is cheap. Hydroelectric and geothermal are both cheap and clean.
Mining simply serves to protect these networks and keep them decentralized. Many are moving towards proof of stake which does not require miners.
I hope your opinion on how things benefit the world is a little more intuitive than "How does this help cure disease?".