News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions of mining bitcoin. Parent comment

Re:BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions o... by oafitupa on Sunday February 15, 2015 @12:12PM (#9053217)
> It's not even inflationary

And that's exactly the whole point, and is the very reason it's working.

> a pyramid scheme

Then every other successful investment is a pyramid scheme. Gold is a pyramid scheme! Storing food for catastrophes is a pyramid scheme! Paintings are a pyramid scheme!

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:BitcoinEmissions – A project to calculate CO2 emissions o... by ufo on Sunday February 15, 2015 @05:06PM (#9054345)
Not every investment has to be a pyramid scheme. If you are generating value or selling a product then you end up with more money than what your investors are putting in.

What makes bitcoin into kind of a pyramid scheme is that right now a big part of the reward for miners is the 25 bitcoin you get from mining a block. Only a very small fraction comes from the transaction fees. The only way to keep bitcoin stable is by having a constant supply of new users buying into bitcoin by acquiring those fresh bitcoins from the miners.

[ Parent | on HN ]