this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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Genuine question: If I use a cryptocurrency such as Monero for its privacy benefits (only for spending, not as an investment), am I indirectly making crypto mining more profitable and hurting the environment?
ps. I don't use any crypto yet.
Edit: actually I don't care that much about private money. What if I were to just use some crypto because it's convenient? Would that be bad?
There are so many things we interact with that hurt the environment that I wouldn’t take too much personal blame if I were you. The big time miners are the ones using the electricity, and they could use their profits to invest in renewable sources for their mining. They just don’t do it, much like how every other company in the world doesn’t take environmentalism seriously and just says “you first”.
The government needs to focus on making renewable energy investment a requirement for the biggest offenders. That is the only way we will force large scale change that actually matters.
Well, if you use credit cards that data gets tracked, stored, mined for years to come, not to mention the dozens of internet servers it took for you to buy that bread in the immediate. If you use cash, I'd assume some local authorities use extra AI to track your movements via cloud cameras (plus fiat isn't fungible since it has serial numbers)
It would be nice to hear the "pro-[insert your local fiat]" energy use when people argue environmentalism against cryptocurrencies
Good point, every form of money we can use has some inherent impact to the environment. Debit / Credit card infrastructure is consuming electricity 24/7/365 all over the world. Cash uses a variety of manufacturing systems that mostly run on electricity, and requires raw materials to be sourced and prepared for use as money.
Not to mention the usd is based on oil trades ..