Good morning Beehaw it is currently 5:30 am in the morning here in Australia Nov 9 2024.
It may not be morning where you are but it is always morning somewhere on Earth. Plus this chat is more of a vibe. Have you been doing any hobbies lately or discovered a new tv show? Maybe you worked on something and want to share it or you recently found something you are passionate about?

  • shortwavesurfer
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    16 days ago

    It’s not something I’ve recently become interested in, but it’s something that I’m highly involved in called Monero, trying to make the world’s most private anonymous online digital cash. It’s currently being blocked in many jurisdictions from people being able to easily obtain it because it’s actually doing what it says it’s supposed to do and governments are absolutely terrified.

    Edit: Exhibit A: https://primal.net/e/note1f7ektfr4r7m4305c88frthf797j2wftstr9506zjr3fc09aktr0qwqjecv

    • Gamers_mate@beehaw.orgOP
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      16 days ago

      I haven’t looked into crypto in years. My main problem is the power consumption and environmental impact from most cryptos. I do like the idea of having an online currency outside the control of governments though especially when they become authoritarian.

      • iii@mander.xyz
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        16 days ago

        I’ve heard that argument before, but i struggle with it. I do think regular banking, with all their buildings and people, clerks all the way to central banking, wasting entire lives on it, have a far larger total emissions.

        • Gamers_mate@beehaw.orgOP
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          16 days ago

          I guess you would need to factor in the building electricity to keep the lights on etc. Though as far as I know bank transactions don’t involve highly powered machines trying to 1 up each other to solve a transaction resulting in more power being used. Tbh idk how much power that would all total to.

          • iii@mander.xyz
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            16 days ago

            Lighting doesn’t matter me much. Heating is usually the environmentally dominant factor in a building I’ve learned.

            Though as far as I know bank transactions don’t involve highly powered machines trying to 1 up each other

            Instead you’ve thousands of lives being wasted on deciding whether to raise or lower interest rates. A fair comparison would take that into account, too.

            • Gamers_mate@beehaw.orgOP
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              16 days ago

              That makes sense especially since LED lights can save a lot more energy than traditional lights while heating would still be more of a problem. I am not really qualified to talk about interest rates so I cant really comment on that.

      • shortwavesurfer
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        16 days ago

        Since a crypto mine can be set up pretty much anywhere, there’s electricity. You can get sources that would otherwise be unused, such as flaring natural gas or methane from garbage dumps, etc. as well as heating your home during the winter and making some money back instead of just wasting it all in heat.

        • Gamers_mate@beehaw.orgOP
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          16 days ago

          I guess it depends how mining for that currency works. Traditional POW for example will result in lots of energy that does not need to be used. I know a few years ago POS was used by some to be more energy efficient. It has been a few years since I gave up on crypto due to environmental concerns though I am sure a lot of progress has been made since then.

          • shortwavesurfer
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            16 days ago

            Now, I will say straight out that I am a much bigger fan of proof of work than proof of stake in order to keep the system decentralized and honest. However, Monero at least is completely CPU mined and ASIC devices do not exist for it because it’s purposely been made to keep them out.

            I am guessing yours and most people’s concerns with proof of work is not necessarily the power use, but the power use in such a concentrated area. And that is avoided with Monero not having ASIC devices. Because people are doing it on their desktop computers while they are taking a shower.

            • Gamers_mate@beehaw.orgOP
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              16 days ago

              My problem with the power use is has coal/ fossil fuels been used that would have not been used otherwise. If being ASIC resistant leads to less coal being burnt because not everywhere uses renewable energy than it is better than the alternative of having coal hungry ASIC machines burning through resources.

              • shortwavesurfer
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                16 days ago

                That is going to be highly dependent on location. ASIC miners go for wherever the power is cheapest because they are big companies and are trying to turn a profit. Whereas people mining Monero are using their CPUs on their computers that they already have in their bedroom.

    • iii@mander.xyz
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      16 days ago

      How fast are transfers in monero? That’s a thing I don’t like about BTC, the fee if you want fast transactions.

      • shortwavesurfer
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        16 days ago

        Monero does not have replaced by feet like Bitcoin does, so you can accept a zero confirmation transaction, which takes seconds up to whatever level you are comfortable with. For example, you might buy a coffee with a zero confirmation transaction in seconds, but buying a car would take 10 blocks or about 20 minutes. Fees are also stupid low. So no issue there.

        • iii@mander.xyz
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          16 days ago

          Monero does not have replaced by feet

          Don’t quite understand that, sorry

          but buying a car would take 10 blocks or about 20 minutes

          So about the same confirmation speed as BTC?

          • shortwavesurfer
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            16 days ago

            Replace by fee is a mechanism where as long as a transaction has not been confirmed yet you can replace it with a new transaction as long as it pays a higher fee but that could cause double spending which is a problem.

            Also, in Bitcoin, they say, in order to make sure a transaction has really gone through, you should wait 7 blocks. And therefore, that would be 70 minutes instead of 20 minutes.

              • shortwavesurfer
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                16 days ago

                Glad I could help. If you ever decide to start playing with it, send me your wallet address and I will send you a little bit to get started with.

                  • shortwavesurfer
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                    16 days ago

                    Monero.com which can be downloaded on the iOS App Store or the Google Play Store. It is actually an app and not a web wallet which is what I originally thought when I first heard about it.