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Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in... by globular-toast on Sunday April 18, 2021 @05:45AM (#26851115)
I'm not sure. The trouble is you're comparing apples to oranges. On the one hand you have money which, while not essential for civilisation, is generally agreed to be a good thing. On the other you have this thing that absolutely is not money by any stretch. How do you possibly calculate how much value each of these adds to society?
Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in... by antaviana on Sunday April 18, 2021 @06:06AM (#26851198)
I think that money is essential for civilization. I support what Jeremy Irons said Kevin Spacey in movie Margin Call: “Money is just a made up thing that helps we don’t kill each other for food.”
Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in... by globular-toast on Sunday April 18, 2021 @07:02AM (#26851453)
I don't think it's necessary, but I think it's inevitable, especially in seasonal climates.
Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in... by betterunix2 on Sunday April 18, 2021 @10:03AM (#26852557)
That's kind of like saying the wheel is not essential to civilization, but that it is "inevitable." An accounting system of some kind is necessary to organize the limited resources available to any civilization, and that is exactly what money is and how it emerged in early civilizations.
Re:Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted in... by globular-toast on Sunday April 18, 2021 @10:42AM (#26852905)
Well, for a start, there have been loads of civilisations that didn't have wheels. Don't make the mistake of thinking our current civilisation is the only one that can exist because it exists right now. Those other civilisations existed in their time too.

There is a big difference between necessary and inevitable. Crime is inevitable. Is it necessary? I believe a civilisation could exist if the people decided to outlaw money. There are so many other ways to allocate resources: bartering, contracts (which get you asynchronicity), centralised allocation (which can be at a national level, e.g. communism or a local level, like a feudal system), gift economies. All of these have existed and worked for a time.