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Re:The Kingdom of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin for... by HWR_14 on Monday May 01, 2023 @07:48PM (#35780997)
Sometimes it is waste energy. Sometimes it's useful energy that the local market cannot afford but could easily use it to make everyone's lives better. Sometimes it's just a random quirk of markets that they get first dibs on the electricity. And in at least one case, a decommissioned coal plant was purchased to be restarted just to mine bitcoin.
Re:The Kingdom of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin for... by HashBasher on Monday May 01, 2023 @09:00PM (#35781702)
Bitcoin makes people's lives better. A lot of people use it as a savings account. That's really great, especially for people living with a hyperinflationary currency.
Re:The Kingdom of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin for... by can16358p on Monday May 01, 2023 @10:57PM (#35782754)
It's actually good to have as an alternative to any centralized, government-backed currency.

We need an economy that isn't denoted on dollars or euros or similar. Bitcoin is a step towards that. And all the PoW "waste" is worth it. (Though I wish there was a better alternative that's more environmentally friendly while still decentralized like PoW so PoS isn't a good candidate)

Re:The Kingdom of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin for... by HWR_14 on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @01:01AM (#35783545)
Or they could put the money in stocks or gold or other assets.

But note "assets" and "savings accounts" are not the same thing, and confusing the two is pretty bad.

Re:The Kingdom of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin for... by RestlessMind on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @10:40AM (#35788204)
Stocks -> can be seized by governments where the exchanges or actual companies are based.

Gold -> Good, and Bitcoin is like Gold in many aspects. While it doesn't have Gold's history yet, it has a few other qualities like easy transferrability and divisibility.

Other assets -> Like? ForEx is at the mercy of issuing government (just ask Russia who lost ~300B$). Land can be seized if it's outside one's jurisdiction.

In general, Bitcoin (like Gold) is a great asset to park some fraction of your wealth as a hedge against geopolitical risks.

Re:The Kingdom of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin for... by int_19h on Saturday May 06, 2023 @01:45AM (#35838422)
Bitcoin is not like gold in one important aspect that chiefly matters for a long-term store of value: it's much more volatile.
Re:The Kingdom of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin for... by HashBasher on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @07:42PM (#35795790)
It's difficult to buy stocks if you don't even have a bank account. Why wouldn't Bitcoin be a "savings account"? I use it as a savings account, it's really great. I put money that I don't need today there so I can have the same or higher buying power in the long term, regardless of inflation.
Re:The Kingdom of Bhutan Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin for... by HWR_14 on Wednesday May 03, 2023 @12:37AM (#35798060)
BTC is an asset that moves around a lot.

If I put money in my savings account, I can use it tomorrow. If you put money in your BTC savings account a year ago, your BTC is worth less than money under a mattress (or in a modest yield savings account).

You may want to invest in BTC, and that's absolutely fine! But it's not a savings account.