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Bitcoin The Almighty Buck

26,000 and Counting: America is Installing Hundreds More Bitcoin ATMs Each Week (msn.com) 132

The cryptocurrency-ATM company Coinmover has over 100 machines in stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Washington state — and plans to have 1,250 machines in 18 states by the end of the year, reports the Boston Globe.

Right now each machine is selling "an average of about $40,000 in cryptocurrency each month." There's a nationwide surge in easier ways to buy cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin ATMs leading the way. According to the industry tracking site Coin ATM Radar, there were about 6,000 such machines in the U.S. at this time last year, but over 26,000 today, with hundreds more installed every week. And that only counts "pure" bitcoin ATMs, the ones that only sell cryptocurrency. In addition, thousands of traditional cash-vending ATMs have been modified to support crypto purchases as well. Then there's Coinstar, which makes the coin-counting machines found in many US supermarkets. About 7,500 of these machines now sell bitcoin, and that number is expected to reach 10,000 by year's end. Researchers at a different site, How Many Bitcoin ATMs, have added these hybrid machines to the mix, and estimate there are over 42,000 bitcoin vending machines in the US today....

Financial technology giant NCR has entered the game. Last month NCR acquired Boston-based LibertyX, one of the first bitcoin ATM companies. These days, LibertyX mainly makes software to add crypto vending capabilities to standard ATMs and retail point-of-sale devices — the modern equivalent of cash registers. NCR is one of the world's leading makers of ATMs and point-of-sale devices. The LibertyX acquisition doesn't just mean thousands more crypto-capable ATMs. It could also mean that thousands of retail stores could sell crypto just like candy bars. It's already happening. LibertyX has deals with retailers CVS, Rite Aid, and 7-Eleven to enable bitcoin purchases at selected stores. A customer uses a LibertyX smartphone app to punch in the amount he or she wants to buy, up to $500 per day. A barcode appears on the phone's screen. A clerk scans the barcode and the customer hands over the cash. It's instantly added to the customer's bitcoin account, less a $4.95 transaction fee.

LibertyX claims this service is now available at over 20,000 retail stores...

According to a survey from the University of Chicago, 13 percent of US adults bought or sold cryptocurrency during the past year. That's nearly 33 million people. How many more will buy in, when thousands of retail stores and ATMs become bitcoin trading posts? We're about to find out.

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26,000 and Counting: America is Installing Hundreds More Bitcoin ATMs Each Week

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25, 2021 @11:40PM (#61832595)

    We really need an EMP to finish this bullshit off

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Bitcoin would survive an EMP. Backups of the ledger exist on every continent.

      Banks would not survive. Most banks might have several copies of their data, but it's likely they are all located in the USA.

      https://www.shtfblog.com/can-b... [shtfblog.com]

      • Bitcoin might survive an EMP, but will YOUR bitcoin? And how will you make use of it if all the infrastructure around you and everyone else's devices are fried?

        Currency is frankly the least of your problems in that scenario, even in a Carrington event but especially in case of nuclear war. The only currency that's going to matter for the period immediately following such besides social will be soup cans, and cartridges.

        • If Covid is anything to go by, the most valuable currency will be toilet paper. People seem to value that more than food for some reason.

          • If Covid is anything to go by, the most valuable currency will be toilet paper. People seem to value that more than food for some reason.

            You can't wipe your bottom on a 12 gauge cartridge.

            • by Nuncio ( 179612 )

              If Covid is anything to go by, the most valuable currency will be toilet paper. People seem to value that more than food for some reason.

              You can't wipe your bottom on a 12 gauge cartridge.

              and yet they're still trying...

            • You can't wipe your bottom on a 12 gauge cartridge.

              Hold my shotgun...

        • by guruevi ( 827432 )

          You can literally print your Bitcoin on a piece of paper, or plastic or metal, whatever you think you need to survive whatever apocalypse you plan for.

          • You can literally print your Bitcoin on a piece of paper, or plastic or metal, whatever you think you need to survive whatever apocalypse you plan for.

            If a potential recipient can't verify the exchange then that paper will be useful only as an asswipe.

      • "Most banks might have several copies of their data, but it's likely they are all located in the USA."

        Yes, Guam, Puerto-Rico, Samoa, Mariana,...

      • by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 ) on Sunday September 26, 2021 @10:00AM (#61833631)

        Bitcoin would survive an EMP. Backups of the ledger exist on every continent.

        So that when you flag down a truckload of coal-rolling rednecks and try to trade your storehouse-of value investment for food, you won't have gold coins but a printed code that you swear will represent a certain amount of Bitcoin in some future when when computers get reinvented again?

        • In such a scenario gold would be almost as worthless as a Bitcoin paper wallet.

          • "In such a scenario gold would be almost as worthless as a Bitcoin paper wallet."

            Yes... until the dust settles. Then your Bitcoin paper wallet is still worthless, but your gold is still gold.

      • by Kartu ( 1490911 )

        Bitcoin would survive an EMP. Backups of the ledger exist on every continent.

        Banks would not survive. Most banks might have several copies of their data, but it's likely they are all located in the USA.

        Since we have ways to EMP entire USA, conviring east and west alike, right?

        This "financial bubble zero intrinsic value thingy that can double or lose half of its value in one day is better than your bank" is getting annoying. (yes, financial bubble is how a number of Nobel laureates in economics have regarded crypto)

        And, oh, wow, two articles about how good crypto is on the first page of Slashdot? Bubble needs more victims, I guess. 10% of US "Covid Stimulos Checks" being pumped into crypto [coindesk.com] bubble do not l

    • by mysidia ( 191772 )

      We really need an EMP to finish this bullshit off

      An EMP? Are we talking about the whole internet here as something "killing the planet"? Because there are a ton of positives; if anything the internet is saving the planet not killing it.

      As for Bitcoin ATMs / Bitcoin discussed in the article... They're not killing the planet either, even though there is some apparent waste - they are merely a drop in the bucket compared to almost any real industry.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    A fool and his money are soon parted.

    Who cares?

    • Who cares?

      Clearly Slashdot does, since they obviously have a vested interest [ibb.co] in it.

    • Yep. Bitcoin ATMs are just a way to skim a commission from people.

    • by bokske ( 1429119 )

      I've stayed far away from the whole Ponzi scheme that is cryptocurrency, so I hear you. However, I wanted to make an illicit purchase last week, and the seller insisted on bitcoin.
      So after all these years, I had to figure out how to deal with the practicalities of obtaining, owning, and spending bitcoins after all - preferably with some degree of anonymity.

      Getting myself a 'wallet' was the easy part. But buying bitcoins anonymously proved very hard. My impression is that the authorities have been clamping d

  • https://news.bitcoin.com/trump... [bitcoin.com]
    "Trump Views Crypto a Threat, Proposes Countermeasures in New Budget"

    "Well if Trump hates it, I want it..." as Bitcoin price rockets.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Trump is random, because he has no insights into reality and no personal integrity. Trump not wanting something is not a reliable indicator that this something is desirable.

  • by timholman ( 71886 ) on Sunday September 26, 2021 @12:04AM (#61832613)

    And each week, thousands of more Americans install sports betting apps on their smartphones,

    I don't consider either trend a particularly healthy one.

    • by edis ( 266347 )

      Is their energy waste footprint comparable? Or CO2 emissions?
      Capability to disrupt economies, given further stronghold?

  • The university of Boogaloo survey said 69% of US adults never lie on surveys. That's nearly 42 quadrillion.
  • by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Sunday September 26, 2021 @12:28AM (#61832641)

    Isn't the point of Bitcoin that you can transact anonymously?

    I don't see how that is true when using an ATM. Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose?

    • I wonder if people are saying "Bitcoin" when they mean "cryptocurrency", similar to how people use a brand name like Dempster's Dumpster and it turned into a common noun.

      My issue with BTC is how much resources it takes to do a transaction. With so relatively few coins and a high cost of entry and exit, it might have been a great 1.0 currency during the times of Satoshi, but there are other cryptocurrencies that might be just as good to mine.

      The fact that all transactions are part of an immutable public cha

    • Isn't the point of Bitcoin that you can transact anonymously?

      Nope. The point is that you can transact anonymously if you want to .

    • It's funny how readers of this tech news website are still oblivious to how bitcoin works
      • Agreed. They don't seem to realize that if it takes no effort to generate Bitcoins and anyone could create as many of them as they wish at any time they would be worthless.

        Every time I read someone saying "But Bitcoin uses so much energy!" I let out a sigh of despair.
        • Every time I read someone saying "But Bitcoin uses so much energy!" I let out a sigh of despair.

          If we had excess energy generation capacity without consequences, nobody would be saying it. We live here in the real world, where increased use of energy translates directly into things like environmental impact, cancer deaths, global warming, sea level rise, get the picture? Nobody is against the effort, they're against the impact. If every bitcoin was generated by a space heater somewhere that consisted of a mining rig covered in heat sinks and it only spit them out when the heat was desired, or if we en

          • Everything we use requires energy to run. The internet uses loads of energy. Flying uses loads of energy. Should we abandon both just because of this? No, their useful to us. And so is Bitcoin.
            • The difference with “flying” and “running the internet” is that there aren’t substantially more efficient ways of accomplishing the same task. Bitcoin’s massive energy consumption is solely because it uses a proof of work algorithm to secure the blockchain.

              It’s like heating your house by burning $100 bills. Technically, it works, but it’s an insanely wasteful way to do it.

              • I keep trying to explain that in order to give Bitcoin value, you must make it difficult to mine. If anyone can mine any amount of Bitcoins with no effort then it's essentially worthless and therefore useless. Proof of work is an essential part of Bitcoin's design and complaining about its energy use is like barking at the Moon.

                In addition, Proof of Stake hasn't yet been proven in actual use and there are rumors that Ether's implementation is susceptible to fraud.
                • I keep trying to explain that in order to give Bitcoin value, you must make it difficult to mine.

                  We all. fucking. know. that. You keep ignoring that making it difficult to mine is contributing to the collapse of society. If the goal of your currency is to serve society, this is a fatal flaw. If it isn't, then fuck your currency anyway.

                  Proof of Stake hasn't yet been proven in actual use and there are rumors that Ether's implementation is susceptible to fraud.

                  So find another solution.

                  • > You keep ignoring that making it difficult to mine is contributing to the collapse of society.

                    Lack of carbon taxes is the root cause of this problem.

                    The electricity use itself is socially optimally efficient (first fundamental theorem of economics).

                    Just concentrate on the carbon taxes, and the mining on bitcoin would adjust accordingly.

                    Without carbon taxes, then even stopping mining bitcoin will not save you.

                    See pigouvian taxes for more details.

                    • Lack of carbon taxes is the root cause of this problem.

                      Greed is the root cause of this problem. And we don't have carbon taxes because of it.

                      Carbon taxes are part of the solution, but we're not going to get them without people caring about other people more than about their wallets.

                    • This has nothing to do with bitcoin...

                      There's no wealth in simply emptying people's wallets indiscriminately either... you have to attack the right problem... and the right problem is carbon taxes.

                      Forever have people taking advantage of violating the free market argued for their continued right to take that advantage... but usually we have moved in the right direction.

                      What is needed now is carbon taxes... greed has been, is and will be a barrier to getting those... but there's nothing inherently wrong with

                    • There's no wealth in simply emptying people's wallets indiscriminately either... you have to attack the right problem... and the right problem is carbon taxes.

                      Carbon taxes are the right answer, but the question is, how do you get the carbon taxes? Because in some countries you have no real vote, and in other countries people are fucking stupid apparently.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      Bitcoin was never about anonymous transactions. It's a public distributed ledger for Pete's sake, everybody can see where the money is going.

    • by Toad-san ( 64810 )

      ATM? Isn't this more like a vending machine? With a human sales person?

  • by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Sunday September 26, 2021 @01:38AM (#61832711) Journal
    'Cryptocurrency' is still primarily used for illegitimate purposes. It's also a massive waste of resources and is contributing to global warming.
    A broken clock is still right twice a day. As much as I hate the Chinese government and what it does to it's citizens on a daily basis, I have to agree with them on this -- although with different motivations. They want control; I want an end to the insanity and pointlessness of cryptocurrency. Also 'NFTs', while I'm at it.
    All these things are doing is revealing how fucking STUPID our species can be. No good will come of them.
    • Do you have real data on the carbon footprint of a bitcoin transaction vs a traditional bank transaction? Because I'm betting you don't.
      • by Wimmie ( 446910 )

        Do you have real data on the carbon footprint of a bitcoin transaction vs a traditional bank transaction? Because I'm betting you don't.

        About 500.000 times worse for a bitcoin transaction than a traditional bank transaction according to https://www.forbes.com/advisor... [forbes.com]

        • They're saying it's faster, that's not the same thing. The carbon footprint for a bank includes the infrastructure. Buildings, employees, commutes, international travel, you get the idea. I'm not saying I think it's higher, I'm saying I haven't seen any real comparison data.
          • If you want to count the buildings of the banks, then you should also count the cost of the hardware for bitcoin mining. I think the discussion is typically focused on the additional cost of each additional transaction, considering the rest a sunk cost or investment. Aside that, the bank personnel do a lot of other things than transactions. I'd even think they mostly do other things, I've not had a person at a bank do a payment for me to a third party in ages, if ever...
            • Fair enough, count all that shit.
              • Transaction volume is really gonna get you here
                • I think it should really be comparing to CC transactions, which run around 5000/sec or 1B/day. https://www.cardrates.com/advi... [cardrates.com] BTC is around 400K/day so over 3 orders of magnitude less than CC.
                  • Some CC transactions are for bitcoin.

                    Remember; bitcoin is a settlement network, more like ACH or swift.

                    Comparing SWIFT vs bitcoin is apple to apples.

                    But CC is not comparable; first off CC networks can actually move bitcoin; so obviously its a higher level payment network and not a settlement network.

                    Thats why you have to pay for your credit card purchases again later, with a real settlement payment; the original CC transactions were not final.

                    • Except the typical SWIFT transaction, at least the ones I have done are for millions of dollars. And they happen nearly instantaneously, think seconds. BTC not so much. ACH is maybe more like BTC, except transaction cost for ACH is about 0. According to NACHA, ACH volumes for 2020 were 27B payments transferring 61T dollars. So daily average would be 73M/day or just 2 orders of magnitude more than BTC instead of CC's 3. I know the BTC crowd thinks it is the end all/be all, but it is a toy at this point. I've
                    • You seem to be reaching a little. FWIW, most btc transactions are not done on L1, so the vast majority we can never see. Realistically, there are likely more btc transactions than swift in a sober analysis. L1 transactions are final settlement, each of which could represent thousands of transactions.

                      > except transaction cost for ACH is about 0.

                      For individual consumers yes, but if you want to be setup to receive ACH at scale, you are going to be paying some basis points.

                      Nothing is free.

                      From an engineerin

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Do you have real data on the carbon footprint of a bitcoin transaction vs a traditional bank transaction? Because I'm betting you don't.

        You are an idiot. No, seriously, you are. Because that date is readily available via the cost of a traditional bank transfer as upper boundary.

        Here is an example: The Swiss Interbank Exchange charges are here:
        https://www.six-group.com/en/p... [six-group.com]

        Because BC transactions do not leave the system, internal rate is the one yuou have to compare against. It gets cheaper (!) with volume.
        Here is what one transaction costs in the highest volume: 0.0045 CHF, i.e. around less than half an US cent.

        Now remember that at these

        • C'mon, man. You didn't even show any actual carbon footprint data.

          Does calling people idiots and posting vague data even work out for you? I'm guessing not so much.
      • Who said anything about bitcoin transactions? It's the mining that has the monstrous carbon footprint. I find it difficult to believe that you are not aware of that and are simply making a facetious argument here.
    • Of course, now we all know who's behind all those robocalls.

      I mean, they only work because scammers can lead someone to a bitcoin ATM to transfer money that way, leading to machines having to be hidden in back rooms where the staff have to play 20 questions before they'd let you use it.

      Because more often than not, the machine is being used by scammers to steal money - either the "IRS" or "Police" or "grandkids", etc.

      Obviously, the company behind it won't dare stop it because every time some poor grandmother

      • Actually, most of those scammers have victims purchase retail gift cards at stores and then give them the redemption codes. I really doubt your grandma Mabel will be able to figure out how to transact bitcoin between wallets at this stage, and when crypto gets to the stage that itâ(TM)s as easy as a bank account, itâ(TM)s likely there will be enough regulation and oversight in place to make it about the same as a bank transfer. People who think crypto is a tool for criminals, scammers, drug deale
    • by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
      The fact that the broken clock ( I assume you mean an analoge clock that has stopped) hapoens to be correct twice in a 24h period still renders it useless at telling time, I've never understood the point of that idium, unless it 's got somthing to do with checking what realy is broken (possibly recovering a few spare parts if it 's being sensible to repair it) before throwing it out
      • To be even more pedantic the correct phrase is "stopped clock", not "broken clock". Technically an analog clock could be broken in a manner that its hands still move, but in such a manner that they never reflect the correct time. If the (12-hour) clock is stopped, twice a day it will align with the correct time.

        Actually, the whole "broken analog clock that never tells the correct time" sounds like a fun project.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Sad as it is, the "control" the Chinese government wants is needed. People and companies are not capable of keeping a "free" economy running without it degrading into a catastrophic state pretty fast. A global finance system has to be tightly controlled and carefully monitored or it stops working in short order.

      What I wonder is why western governments are so slow to act. It could just be that the crapcoin "economy" is too small to merit much attention, or it could be because the ones essentially running a q

  • Unidirectional (Score:4, Informative)

    by Ronin441 ( 89631 ) on Sunday September 26, 2021 @02:42AM (#61832757) Homepage

    I notice these ATMs can only be used for turning cash into crypto. But not the other way around, because that would be impossible unless you waited at the ATM for potentially several hours for your transaction to clear.

    As such, these ATMs offer only one "improvement" over directly transferring money from a bank account to a crypto account online, via your PC or smartphone: here, you go via cash as an intermediate step. In what circumstance could that extra step possibly be an advantage? When you want to obfuscate the trail. In other words, these are only better when you're up to something dodgy.

    • I notice these ATMs can only be used for turning cash into crypto. But not the other way around, because that would be impossible unless you waited at the ATM for potentially several hours for your transaction to clear.

      As such, these ATMs offer only one "improvement" over directly transferring money from a bank account to a crypto account online, via your PC or smartphone: here, you go via cash as an intermediate step. In what circumstance could that extra step possibly be an advantage? When you want to obfuscate the trail. In other words, these are only better when you're up to something dodgy.

      Yeah, really. What's the point of a "one-way ticket" for your cash?

      Hey all you Libertarian Crypto-Boomer Squawks! What would your objections be, if the FTC or Treasury made a consumer protection rule, that all public ATM BTC financial machines must be bidirectional? In other words, public BTC "buy only" automations -- let's call them Madoff Machines -- are considered a public nuisance and would be illegal; they would need to be modified to allow redemption as well. And of course, transactions in both dir

      • I think most serious crypto investors expect that regulation is not only inevitable, but at long as itâ(TM)s technologically informed, could be necessary for the future of the space. These naysayers and luddites looking from outside, have the silliest view of crypto, as if itâ(TM)s a bunch of pimple faced geeks in their momâ(TM)s basement buying drugs off the dark web. Big institutions are now involved in the cryptospace, ya know⦠like Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and economic players
    • I notice these ATMs can only be used for turning cash into crypto. But not the other way around

      Yep. The house never loses.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      I notice these ATMs can only be used for turning cash into crypto. But not the other way around, because that would be impossible unless you waited at the ATM for potentially several hours for your transaction to clear.

      As such, these ATMs offer only one "improvement" over directly transferring money from a bank account to a crypto account online, via your PC or smartphone: here, you go via cash as an intermediate step. In what circumstance could that extra step possibly be an advantage? When you want to obfuscate the trail. In other words, these are only better when you're up to something dodgy.

      Oops, somebody noticed what is wrong with the whole idea! Quick, push more empty promises of crapcoins making _everybody_ rich!

    • I think the benefit here is keeping the bubble going by expanding the market into the final few segments of the population who it haven't had access to it yet. It started with Slashdot nerds, moved to your typical get-rich-quick businessman types after the 2017 bubble, and in the last year or so, mainstream banks, at least 1 banana republic government, and large corporations.

      Who else is there to sell to? People who don't know how to buy BTC online. (Tech illiterate.) People who don't have a bank account. Pe

    • by doug141 ( 863552 )

      They are great for selling something of no intrinsic value to a dupe. There's an old saying on wall street: sell gold when the shoeshine boy says he is buying gold. There's an old saying in the vending machine biz: the purpose of a vending machine that sells junk for a nickel is to get the last nickel out of a poor kid's pocket. These bitcoin ATMs are a fusion of these two old strategies, selling to people who aren't complex enough to buy bitcoin with a smartphone or computer, or aren't in the banking syste

  • If the government would just wait, this will sort itself out. Not enough turkeys for Christmas? Prices will rise, and next year, more farmers will raise turkeys. Gas shortage? Prices will rise, pay will rise, and more people will take jobs as truck drivers. That's what a free market does. Prediction: government intervention will only screw things up more.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Nope. The market does not regulate itself, regardless of how free. Instead it has a tendency to drive things into catastrophic states. This is well-known by now.

      Oh, sure, if you assume the Homo Economicus, free market works a little better, but still has that tendency to catastrophic states only weaker. But the Homo Economicus is a pure fantasy. Most people have neither the mental capability nor the strategic planning capabilities that are critically needed in a Homo Economicus. As a result, most companies

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      Ya, like the financial crisis of decade and a half past or the savings and loan crisis before that. Both were instances of the Feds not watching the chicken coop while the foxes had a party inside.

      Without Fed intervention in those crises, the U.S. economy would be quite a bit smaller.

      Another plank of your argument is to not increase monopoly oversight. Currently, small innovative companies are being squashed out of existence from the big guys because they can get away with it. Sooner or later, the unfettere

  • The only winners for bitcoin are those with large holdings who can manipulate the market with dank memes and other social media bullshit. Everyone else is just a sucker.
  • by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Sunday September 26, 2021 @07:40AM (#61833317)

    Bitcoin is in essence a pyramid scheme -- which needs a constant supply of plebs at the bottom to sustain the people higher up.
    Therefore, it has apparently become profitable to invest in machines to make more people (at the bottom!) buy bitcoin: people that would otherwise not have done so.

    So sad.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. Crapcoins are one of the thing that makes it amply clear the average person does really understand nothing.

    • The same could be said for the stock market. Retail vs Institutional investors. Institutional investors benefit off of retail investors. It drives stocks higher with more people investing. They pay good money for data on retail investor trends so they can profit off of them. If you donâ(TM)t like that, you have a problem with more than just cryptocurrency. You have a problem with the entire economic system.
  • These days, running a Ponzi-type scam has become really difficult and is fraught with legal risks. Crapcoins to the rescue! There are tons of morons that think they are smarter than everybody else and hence can easily be separated from their money. In addition, the Ponzi-nature is nicely hidden behind complexity too big to understand for the morons and the morons even helpfully spread lies like "this is the future" and "fiat currencies are worse" and other such complete drivel ("Crapcoins help against COVID

  • In a few months, we'll get news about how people's details and money are stolen by a whole raft of unregulated fake Bitcoin ATMs.

    Further prediction, SuperKendall and other Slashdot bitcoin nerds will claim that the system is working as designed - no regulation to get in the way of people having to freedom to steal money - and therefore it's all okay.
  • There are gambling machines everywhere, I can't see any difference from crypto?

    Unless we decide to abolish one, there's no argument to be made about the other.

  • What do the coins look like? Are they Copper, Nickel, Silver, Gold, Unobtainium?

    It says they are ATMs, well conventional ATMs hand out cash - or is this a POS system?
  • and can these sO called atms cOnvert bitcccOin intO ca$h mOnkey?

    i saw One Of these things it wanted $5 fOr each 0.01 bitcccOin sO that's $500 per bitcccOin that means each bitcccOin has tO appreciate way mOre than $500 Or yOu're screwed btw this disjunctiOn happens 2 b true always he he he

  • And here I was thinking we're slowly beginning to understand that climate change is real and that burning energy for no reason whatsoever is not exactly what the world needs right now.

    But I guess personal ambition, pride, a sense of gambling and the hope to win big in the NFT lottery all combine to make people - self-destructively stupid.

    Not surprised at the stupid part. But I thought the species were a tiny bit better on the don't-destroy-yourself part.

    • by guruevi ( 827432 )

      The entirety of what Bitcoin supposedly has burned, even if it was completely carbon-emission, is less than a second of the global emissions from other financial industries.

      If you're worried, build more nuclear energy and sell it at cost to the Bitcoin people.

      • by Tom ( 822 )

        Other sources beg to differ. There's been a couple articles recently, in different magazines, about the cost of Bitcoin mining or transactions.

        Sure, it's a fraction of our total energy use - but it's a completely useless fraction.

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