LogFAQs > #972970654

When Ethereum transitioned from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake, the the total reduction in carbon emission contribution across all industries went down by 0.1%. Also note that the BTC mining economy incentivizes efficiency in energy usage as that is the killer of profits. As a result, BTC miners tend to look for renewable energies like setting up shop in Nordic countries to utilizing thermal energy consumption. There are even nuclear power plants that would mine BTC because they have no way of storing their excess energy.

But no one gives a shit about BTC, the main fun in blockchain is smart contracts.

thronedfire2 posted...

so nothing new

I'm sure the people who own the blockchains being used will require a service fee just like a bank.

Yup, blockchains require a network fee for all transactions. But what's "new" about using blockchain tech is that those uses are done in a "trustless" (more accurately trust minimized) environment. What this means is that smart contracts are coded to act as intended without the creator being able to tamper the contract while being auditable by others to confirm the intentions stated by the creator are in line what the contract is coded to do. This allows creates an environment where business transactions are conducted without worrying about the counterparty betraying them.

This kind of thing, counterparty risk, isn't something most people ever pay attention to. But it's a big deal when you need to worry about it. Back when GME skyrocketed in value, Robinhood blocked all retail transactions and even sold off shares from people's accounts while letting institutional investors conduct transactions normally. These company behaviors would not be able to thrive in a blockchain dominated world as other developers would spin up the same type of services with the added bonus of "We developers cannot change our Terms of Service" and everyone would flock over to it.

Understanding the value of trust and transparency that smart contracts provide is an extremely difficult topic to convey. A number of developers don't really get it, a lot of institutional investors don't really get this, and the vast majority of retail investors absolutely don't get this. If you understand this, then you have an opportunity of a lifetime. For everyone else, you're going to have to wait till the industry finally recreates all the functionalities e-commerce needs to thrive, after that, novel use cases people never thought of will be derived.