by benduhamel
Ah the wondrous world of 2022. Another year of a bunch of capitalist schmucks continuing to turn their wealth into more wealth. This time, the wealth is even more entirely made up. Cryptocurrency and NFTS are seemingly unavoidable, everyone is talking about them ad nauseum. There is nothing I can say that is more summative, thorough and all encompassing asn FoldingIdeas’ two hour and eighteen minute documentary Line Goes Up- The Problem with NFTs. The doc goes into incredible detail on how the crypto world operates, it’s history, and the flaws inherent in it’s existence.
The engagement and backlash crypto has faced unfortunately has not been enough. My short explanation of how crypto works is that a computer uses electricity to process solutions to equations. These solutions are then exchanged/rewareded with a currency. The electricity used in the process is devastating to our environment, especially in tandem with the extraction and exploitation used to create the computer components. One small rig can use the same amount of energy as a small nation.
I had the unfortunate experience of encountering a home with several rigs. In fact, the home did not use any heat besides that generated by dozens of whirring fans struggling not to melt the case encompassing them. Each room around the house had rigs equipped with GPUs worth $4000, RGB fans glowing bright and eternally. I engaged with the owner of the rigs on how they managed to acquire such an arsenal, as computer parts are no exception to ongoing supply chain issues due to the covid-19 pandemic. They responded by telling me that they “got them from work, and they’ll earn me my retirement from work!”, which honestly sounds great. The best way to cheat capitalism is by not working, so passive income sounds like a dream. However, as the rigs heated and sheltered me each night, I could not escape the weight the sins of the mine that bore down upon my racing restless mind.
Another inherent flaw of crypto is that the money is not money. The only way to sell your crypto is by finding some schmuck looking to buy into crypto, as it is a zero sum game. The value of the coin is made up, plain and simple, and yields nothing but another pointless capitalist venture, and like all the machinations of capitalism; it is resulting in the destruction of our planet and environment. So I emplore each and every person to take a very strict anti-NFT and anti-crypto stance. It is morally permissible and required for you to bully anyone shilling crpyto.
Categories: ben duhamel, feb 8, news