To expand on what seems to be a generalisation of this problem: Any cryptocurrency sibling of bitcoin that relies on cryptographic mining as a basis will either have this problem or will result in (value of currency * inflation rate) additional resources wasted on computation each year.
I believe (tentatively) that the above is an unavoidable result of the cryptographic and micro-economic principles that such currencies rely on.
This is not limited to cryptocurrencies, e.g., gold-based currencies cause people to “waste resources” mining.
This is not limited to cryptocurrencies, e.g., gold-based currencies cause people to “waste resources” mining.
Yes, the ‘mining’ metaphor was well chosen.
In terms of that gold analogy, what we are talking about in the context would be if gold spontaneously generated itself in proportion to the amount of existing gold and automatically buried itself at whatever depth makes it barely worthwhile to dig up. That waste is the unavoidable cost of making bitcoin-style cryptocurrency have ongoing inflation.
This is not limited to cryptocurrencies, e.g., gold-based currencies cause people to “waste resources” mining.
Yes, the ‘mining’ metaphor was well chosen.
In terms of that gold analogy, what we are talking about in the context would be if gold spontaneously generated itself in proportion to the amount of existing gold and automatically buried itself at whatever depth makes it barely worthwhile to dig up. That waste is the unavoidable cost of making bitcoin-style cryptocurrency have ongoing inflation.