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I don't think we are going to find a middle ground. I'm very much of the Austrian school of economics, hard money etc. I believe the current fully fiat operated system of last 100 odd years will be a blip in history. A deviation away from hard money. Keynesian economics is a relatively recent phenomenon - one that is a slow frog boiling of people's wealth. We have had periods of such amazing productivity gains and technological innovation, yet people on a relative basis, earn less value, save less, work more hours (two income households) and own less assets. The wealth divide keeps getting greater and greater.
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
El Salvador adopted bitcoin two years ago. You expect such a revolutionary change to be a sudden and immediate success? Change takes time. Bitcoin has existed for only 15 years! Maybe come back in a decade from now and let me know what you think of the success or otherwise of Bitcoin in El Salvador. For a soverign state to adopt it as a national currency 13 years into its existence is mind boggling if you ask me.
Putting the face mask and arrogance to one side, I agree with most of the technical explanation of Bitcoin in the video, though his concerns about scaling of transactions are being overcome as time progresses. I agree words like "blockchain" etc are hype and VC type talk. Most of what makes Bitcoin what is is was discovered decades earlier, absolutely. It was Satoshi's bringing all of those things together and the linking proof of work to a decentralized blockchain, along with a difficulty adjustment algorithm that resulted in the security (prevent double spending) and unchanging issuance schedule of the native token being decentralised that was the innovation. I agree with much of what was said about Ethereum and all the other rubbish.
He doesn't have a clear understanding of how energy and Bitcoin operate. Bitcoin miners will always locate the cheapest energy possible, it is an endless search for such energy. Energy is cheap when it is abundant and/or isolated. If energy is unwanted by the market - Bitcoin miners will use it. If it is wanted by others - it is not economical to mine Bitcoin.
What he dismisses or misunderstands the most about Bitcoin is the value of monetary attributes it has that no other money before it has held - it is verifiably scarce, it is censorship resistant/permissionless (ownership can change without permission) and when stored correctly, unconfiscatable. It is a truly immutable ledger - this has not existed before. To dismiss some of these characteristics as only being used/desired by criminals is astoundingly naive and fitting of someone wearing a diaper mask in a lecture theatre in Calafornia.
Your references to Lightning being flawed are already outdated - improvements and changes are being made to address that vulnerability. He harps on the limited number of transactions per second on the base layer - but doesn't consider other layers being developed/built on top of the base layer (immutable secure foundation) that can address scale issues.
Air cooled Bitcoin mining datacenters in residential areas? I'm sure they are a rarity and yeah of course air cooled computing makes noise? Mine with immersion cooling or hydro cooling in those areas? Mine in immersion in your garage and heat your pool like I do? idk. Mining in residential areas is rare because that is offer where electricity is most expensive. There is no intensive to do so. Is that the best you can come up with?
I want to store my life value/wealth in a scarce asset that no one can take from me and that can not be debased.
If you and your lecturer mate don't like Bitcoin - don't use it. Better yet turn it off - oh, that's right you can't. The largest authoritarian power on the planet, China, tried to ban Bitcoin mining - how did that go? About 20% of the global hashrate still comes from China and is increasing. It is a truly free global market asset. Lets see how it is valued by the market as time progresses.
Most everything you have mentioned is very short sighted - referencing what has occurred in your own lifetime or very close to it. The adoption Bitcoin has seen to date in such a short period of time is quite remarkable. Changes in the way the world operative happen over decades and centuries, not years. It may not succeed but I think it is a huge innovation in freedom and property rights for people globally and it has the potential to change the world greatly for the better. Maybe I'm wrong? Time will tell.
I think you and I look at the world very differently, so doubt we will find a common ground. Thanks anyway for the discussion.
