• Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, does not believe in cryptocurrencies, calling them a vehicle for scams and a Ponzi scheme.
  • Torvalds was once rumored to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, but he clarified it was a joke and denied owning a Bitcoin fortune.
  • Torvalds also dismissed the idea of technological singularity as a bedtime story for children, saying continuous exponential growth does not make sense.
    • DashboTreeFrog@discuss.online
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      6 months ago

      Crypto - Meh, I have digital banking and payment processing already, with easy enough international transfers. I’m good.

      AI - I see the possibilities, I think we should continue to develop it even if just for the medical applications of machine learning. Right now people just like playing with it, but, privacy issues aside, I don’t think it’s a waste.

      • orrk@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Crypto is worse tho, it requires about the same amount of energy as the entire global banking network, but only serves less than a percentage of the transactions

    • Ozymati@lemmy.nz
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      6 months ago

      I think both have their uses. A true state backed cryptocurrency used interchangeably with physical cash could be quite useful. Crypto as it is now not so much.

      AI has a bunch of useful applications in medicine, manufacture, research, monitoring… But where we see it is language models, art remixes, and deep fakes.

      • Captain Janeway@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Nah it’s literally a waste of physical resources. Crypto currency is a waste of fossil fuels. AI has its functions at least.

        • jabjoe@feddit.uk
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          6 months ago

          Proof of stake uses a load less than proof of work.

          Be really good if currencies could go in and out of crypto. Could cut out a lot of middle men.

          • orrk@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            again, what use does it serve over traditional banking?

            even PoS requires a lot of resources in comparison, for a system that literally exists to funnel money to a smaller group of people

            • iopq@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              I literally can’t transfer money to Kazakhstan without paying $50 for a wire.

            • jabjoe@feddit.uk
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              6 months ago

              Advantages of cash and digital, without the swings of raw crypto. Also leaving the ability to usefully manipulate your country’s currency.

              Crypto means easy, open payment systems. No gatekeepers like WorldPay.

              • orrk@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                like any true Liber-crypto-bro-tarian, your understanding of crypto is only undercut by your understanding of economics

                • jabjoe@feddit.uk
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                  6 months ago

                  Manipulating currency is a useful tool. If you don’t think so, that makes you more liberian than me.

                  Like many here, I’m big into open source, and card payment systems are an issue. Crypto is one solution to that. Crypto has advantages, but it falls down as a currency because of blind faith in the invisble hand.

            • jabjoe@feddit.uk
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              6 months ago

              From what I found, and varies due to values/date, looks like a PoW transaction is about 2+ million times more energy than traditional banking. PoS is over 1000 times less than PoW, so about 2+ thousands times traditional banking. But transitional banking has other problems. For one, the market of payment is stitched up. Not like openness of a crypto currency.

              • n3m37h@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                6 months ago

                Plus the hardware needed for each person atop the extra power useage.
                Not worth it when May already feels like Aug

                • jabjoe@feddit.uk
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                  6 months ago

                  Everyone has hardware enough already. Your phone is perfectly good enough. For tills it will be easier to implement. No nonsense with a card machine and things like WorldPay and whole locked down PC. The hardware and platform wouldn’t matter.

      • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        A true state backed cryptocurrency used interchangeably with physical cash could be quite useful.

        What advantage does this give over a simple digital currency?