Interesting article: Will central bank digital currencies dethrone the dollar? | Barry Eichengreen | The Guardian This goes, I suppose to one of the three classical functions of money, namely that of being a means of exchange. The others I was taught (some 45 years ago in A-level economics!) were those of being a store of wealth and a unit of account. The 'store of wealth' function seems to founder (for me) on the rocks of DC's not being underpinned by large-scale central bank backing or on any underlying assets. The 'unit of account' function would, I suppose depend on how widespread the adoption of DC's becomes. But an unreliable value (exchange rate?) would probably also undermine that function? What do our DC Barons think of Professor Eichengreen's argument?
Given the amount of resources and carbon emissions generated during Bitcoin mining (ignoring all the other problems), I can't see how it can be allowed to continue. It wouldn't surprise me if the entire digital currency system was banned globally until the time comes when it can be environmentally sustainable.
Given our species' record so far on environmental sustainability, I'd be more surprised if it was banned. More likely it'll be on the long list of things we could have done to save ourselves, but didn't.
I fear our legal systems and the rights of individuals to make money will override everything else. And at this time, you can look at that and say, well yes, law is important. The rights of individuals to provide and thrive if they are able is important. 1.5 degrees isn't much. 2 degrees, well whats that, thats not much, I could cope with that. But it misses the bigger picture. The thing thats taken me aback the last few days is that these gases last incredible amounts of time. Co2 stays in the atmosphere "a few hundred years". So every extra tonne of emission we generate today, will still be up there, warming the planet in 2121, maybe 2221, maybe even 2321. I marvelled at the words used by Sharma. That the report was a wake up call. If we're not awake by now, humanity really does have little chance! We've been aware of this for 40 years or more. I find it staggering we're waiting so long for COP26. Meet now. You have the technology. You have the ability to have an online meeting. Come up with action plans. Not notional targets. Actions. Not waiting for technology. Actions. But you're right, things like bitcoin which uses crazy amounts of energy (when we have perfectly useable currencies that have been around for decades and centuries) should be easy low hanging fruit. Stop it, Ban it. Recompensate it. And lets look for all the things that can don't affect us greatly, but help make inroads into the pollution we are all contributing to, just from our existence and staying alive. We can all be hypocrites when it comes to climate change. I'm no different. But we all have to do something. Every small thing will help. Big things are needed, but we can't effect that. So what are we each going to do to do our bit more than we were doing yesterday?
Not saying cryptos are perfect, they are far from it. But if you look at the policies and politics which underpin the USD and make it the worlds go-to currency, you'll see that it is much dirtier that cryptos may ever be. That being said there is no reason for Bitcoin to use the energy it does. Hopefully that will be its downfall and it'll be replaced by newer, better, greener cryptos.
