abaga129

I really like how this article is written. I'm a big time crypto fan, but the point the author makes about how something being decentralized makes it more difficult to change is so true. This is the reason Ethereum 2 has been in the works for numerous years and is still several years away from being completed.

The carbon footprint you refer to applies only to proof-of-work blockchains. Unfortunately 3 of the largest systems use this (bitcoin, Ethereum, and doge) but an alternative has already been created called proof-of-stake. Nearly every new crypto uses proof-of-stake and Ethereum plans to switch to it. The market seems to approve of this as well as some of the big gainers in market cap use this system.

As a Missourian, it's honestly embarrassing and increases my distaste for the land where I grew up and still live.

His use of the word "decrypted" shows at least some lack of understanding. The SSNs were in base64 as I understand it so "decoded" would make sense but as we all know these two concepts are vastly different. He uses the locked analogy but there is no key or lock in this scenario.

While I dont completely agree with you, you do make good points. I would argue that Cryptocurrencies lacking sovereignty is what makes it appealing and gives it value for most users. Bitcoin is seen as an inflation hedge for many investors when they see their own government printing money like its post WW1 Germany (Exaggeration). The volatility is definitely an issue for someone looking to invest a serious amount into.

I personally feel that we are still in the very early stages of this tech and I think it will continue to grow.

How is that any different from Fiat money? Or anything for that matter. It holds no real value beyond the paper it is printed on. It is valuable because we all agree as a society to give it value.

Most layer 1 Blockchains are trying to replace the existing payment processing systems such as visa. Not replace all of our computing infrastructure (although some are trying to do this such as ICP)

Smart contracts are huge in crypto currency and are likely here to stay. Afaik all of the top 10 crypto currencies by market cap have smart contracts or plan to have them except bitcoin and tether.

They power decentralized apps and defi. Without them then a blockchain doesn't have much utility aside from processing transactions.

Or by people who do know better and have malicious intent.

Audio plugins is one case. Dplug disables the GC because of an issue on MacOS. So far there is no workaround so we have to write @nogc code.

Do you have any numbers on how much fan capacity actually goes toward crypto mining? I would think its relatively small in the grand scheme of things.

By that logic we should ban stock exchanges as well.

Yes RIAA really shot themselves in the foot with this one. I had also never heard of ytdl before this. Now I fully intend to use it and support it. Maybe I will use it to go download some Taylor Swift songs... Maybe I won't ;)

I always wondered how 3blue1brown created his videos! Thanks for sharing

I'm using freetaxusa.com for the first time this year. I got fed up with TurboTax after being hit with a similar anti-pattern as the ones described above. Got almost to the end and was told I had to pay $80 to file. This was after spending hours on my taxes because there are some things that can't simply be updated.. no you have to completely start the process over from the beginning. This felt intentional so that I would just accept the cost to be done with it.

After learning about how TurboTax lobbies to make filing more difficult, I swore I would not use them any longer. I also take everything opportunity to let people know about TurboTax's lobbying.

So far freetaxusa.com seems better than TurboTax IMO. It's cleaner and to the point. No unnecessary animations or any of that nonsense.