gxon (u/gxon) - Readit News

gxon commented on ElonJet Is Now Suspended twitter.com/jxcksweeney/s... · Posted by u/ffsoftboiled

gxon · 3 years ago

These paper hands, they fold...

> My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589414958508691456

gxon commented on NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap seths.blog/2021/03/nfts-a... · Posted by u/josephscott

fiddlerwoaroof · 5 years ago

One random idea I had was to use cryptomining to “soak up” excess power: so, for example, you could build nuclear out to meet peak load and then set up mining rigs to use the difference between peak and the current load, subsidizing the cost of power production.

It’s probably a bad idea for other reasons, but it’s one way to reduce the environmental impact of PoW

gxon · 5 years ago

You could use mining to incentivize the build out of remote energy generation before transmission infrastructure is ready.

For example, drop some solar panels and miners in the middle of the desert and immediately start generating profit. Use the profit to deploy more solar panels and build out transmission lines. You can do this piecemeal at low initial investment to feel out an energy source without committing billions of dollars to build out.

I'm not aware of anyone who's done major operations like this, but with the profitability of mining so absurdly high right now plus scrutiny on using dirty energy sources, I wouldn't be surprised if it starts. Access to mining ASICs is likely the key bottleneck.

This is the story used to explain part of the reason so much mining is in China. They built out a ton of hydroelectric dams over the decades that have been underutilized due to lack of infrastructure. Miners came in for the unused electricity and brought in a ton of money to the area.

gxon commented on NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap seths.blog/2021/03/nfts-a... · Posted by u/josephscott

prox · 5 years ago

Another way to change this : Could crypto not make useful calculations instead of useless calculations? Like protein folding for example?

gxon · 5 years ago

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/20879/why-cant-w...

gxon commented on MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Debt Bet kevinrooke.com/post/micro... · Posted by u/123six

x87678r · 5 years ago

The good thing about gold is if/when people decide its no longer a good store of value, you can still use it, for jewellery or connectors etc. BTC is just goes poof.

gxon · 5 years ago

This is actually a pro for bitcoin. It's not useful as anything other than a store of value.

If we collectively decide to switch to bitcoin as our store of value network, and retire gold and silver from that use case, then we free up all the gold stored in vaults collecting dust as a value store to do more useful work that it's uniquely capable of, like being used in electronics or dental work.

A lot of these use cases now aren't economically viable because the market value of gold is inflated due to being overloaded with the store of value use case.

gxon commented on Tesla's market cap now accounts for roughly 1/3rd of the global automaker market datamentary.net/psa-tesla... · Posted by u/jonathanleane

aembleton · 5 years ago

Don't you the boring company?

I think the hyperloop is even more ludicrous given the technological problems involved in vacuum tubes. But I think Elon realises that which is why all he did is write a memo on it rather than create a company around it.

gxon · 5 years ago

Yeah, I was referring to the hyperloop and the boring company as separate things.

I feel like the Boring company is what he settled on once it was made clear to him how monumentally stupid hundreds or thousands of miles of near vacuum tube would be in practice. Even if you could actually build a working prototype, it's hyper fragile and will just never be economically viable compared to other solutions.

gxon commented on MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Debt Bet kevinrooke.com/post/micro... · Posted by u/123six

quickthrower2 · 5 years ago

Solar system? You are thinking ahead. But then you need to think quantum computing too!

The only saviour is highly valued quantum proof forks of BTC, preserving the original txns

gxon · 5 years ago

Even still on Earth, we're mining ~2% more gold annually. More gold in absolute terms is being mined than any other time in human history.

You just answered the quantum question yourself. We can upgrade the bitcoin protocol with quantum resistant cryptography. I very much doubt it would be a contentious fork. No need to bootstrap an entirely new value network.

gxon commented on Tesla's market cap now accounts for roughly 1/3rd of the global automaker market datamentary.net/psa-tesla... · Posted by u/jonathanleane

pmulard · 5 years ago

All signs point to SpaceX and his mission to Mars.

gxon · 5 years ago

Luckily, it seems like he's mostly abandoned the spectacularly stupid hyperloop idea.

More tunnels would be cool, but I find it hard to believe there's really that much room for improvement over established companies.

gxon commented on MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Debt Bet kevinrooke.com/post/micro... · Posted by u/123six

chucknthem · 5 years ago

Eventually it won't go up anymore either due to market penetration or a better store of value came along. The current long term holders believe that 1. It's far from market penetration (just look at the skeptical comments here) and 2. It has sufficient network effects and momentum to over come competing stores of value.

gxon · 5 years ago

It's perfectly scarce and rapidly trending toward 0 inflation. This is one of the key arguments for why it's ultimately a better store of value than gold, which is abundant in the context of the solar system.

I'm curious about what you mean by a possible better store of value. To me, that sounds like saying we can go colder than 0 kelvin.

gxon commented on MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Debt Bet kevinrooke.com/post/micro... · Posted by u/123six

zucker42 · 5 years ago

If a company is investing in non-synergistic assets with excess cash, why not just instead convert that cash to shareholder profits?

gxon · 5 years ago

Tax advantage?

If you pay out a dividend, you force your shareholders to pay income tax rates.

But, if you can use company profits in a way that pumps the stock valuation, your shareholders can effectively take the same profits with long term cap gains tax. My understanding is that a stock buyback is basically this strategy, and MicroStrategy's CEO has said that he also considered that.

MSTR is up ~100% since they first bought bitcoin.

This is at least, my amateur understanding that could be wrong.

gxon commented on Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges outsideonline.com/2417379... · Posted by u/mathieutd

nabilt · 5 years ago

Something interesting I learned during one of his seminars was that breathing exercises can go a long way in providing most of the benefits. A lot of the media coverage focuses on cold exposure, but deep breathing is really the the core of the message. This is great because it means the barrier to entry is much lower since we all don't need to fill up our tubs with ice every week.

gxon · 5 years ago

Can you describe the breathing exercises? Is it literally just sitting and taking deep breaths?