The nonce used as input of the mining hash function IS random (or rather, arbitrary).

Comments like the above are a sad demonstration of the fact that, while Bitcoin was originally an interesting technical project... Discussion of it has now been completely taken over by shills that try to dismiss/refute/hide all of the problems with Bitcoin (or the cryptoasset du jour) to safeguard their bet

You’re just deflecting. Your argument is as invalid as “mutations are random so evolution is false.” Randomness in an algorithm does not mean the algorithm is non-converging.

I never said anything about converging or not. My GP's post simply points out that having repeated computations with arbitrary input is wasteful.

"Your argument is as invalid as..." ROTFL

Wake me up when Bitcoin moves to a PoS consensus

(Btw, I recommend whoever is reading to also steer clear of PoS coins... If you want to invest, look elsewhere)

What if we had 1000x the power being used to confirm transactions? 1,000,000x the power? At some point we aren't achieving anything.

The is made worse by the fact that there are alternatives to produce trustworthy ledgers that don't involve destroying the planet.

Yes, alternatives that work for rich, powerful people.

These people buying power stations aren't rich?

One of the issues with crypto currency is that we're replacing one elite with another.

As John Oliver says Cryptocurrency is everything you don't understand about finance combined with everything you don't understand about computers. That new, even eliter, elite is probably no more moral or ethical than the old.

It's not like cryptocurrency is more accessible. Maybe it will become so but I still have to fork out a lot of money to buy Bitcoin. It's just the fees get paid to different people.

Not entirely sure how it's better. It is different though, I'll give you that.

Bitcoin is like any other infinitely divisible asset. You can buy as much or as little as you want.

It does so with the same efficiency as a Rube Goldberg machine moves a marble from one place to another.

Efficient or secure. Take your pick.

I"ll hire a few guys with guns, plus auditors. Their ability to maintain no sense of humor beats out your wonky crypto scheme in both regards. Your issue is you don't like the rules that come with the auditors. Those rules have a purpose, and that purpose is tied with sovereign diplomatic interrelation of civic bodies the world over.

Many of whom are expressing great concern over the very thing PoW hastens.

So no, it isn't either or. It's stop jeopardizing the planet in the long term so you can do whatever you're doing now. I don't care that you're doing it, and we can talk civily about the warts of the financial system so it can be tuned to meet your use case better and cone to a compromise; but PoW has the worst set of dysfunctional societal incentives I've seen in my life.

>I"ll hire a few guys with guns

A few guys with guns can be beaten by several other guys with guns.

>plus auditors

https://www.wsj.com/articles/wirecard-scandal-puts-spotlight...

How's that Tether transparency report looking :) ahh, here it is. [1]

[1] https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2021.02.17_-_settlemen...