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blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

Backfire on the blockchain!

As Bitcoin hashing tech got more efficient, guess what happened to Bitcoin's energy budget. That's right, it went (way) up. Another example of the Jevons paradox.

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/05/18/a-tour-of-the-jevons-paradox-how-energy-efficiency-backfires/

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

Since the 1940s, computers have grown about a trillion times more efficient. But instead of using this efficiency for resource conservation, we invested it in computational sprawl.

A spectacular example of the Jevons paradox.

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/05/18/a-tour-of-the-jevons-paradox-how-energy-efficiency-backfires/

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

Thinking about backups? Here's my setup using Borg:

https://sciencedesk.economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/05/borg-backups/

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

Counterintuitively, efficiency is not a tool for conservation. It's a catalyst for technological sprawl.

Here's my deep dive into the Jevons paradox.

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/05/18/a-tour-of-the-jevons-paradox-how-energy-efficiency-backfires/

blair_fix,
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

If you prefer to consume your science in video form, you can watch the post here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaFJGd0NTLY

blair_fix,
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

And if you enjoy my work, you can support it here. Cheers!

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/membership/

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

An essay from Branko Milanovic that is shockingly hospitable to degrowth.

https://branko2f7.substack.com/p/abundance-capitalism-and-climate

GhostOnTheHalfShell,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@blair_fix

I’ll be posting a video that kind of glides through these points; I think what we’d call degrowth is also and largely a choice for an alternate economic story than one told by modern economies and the financial and investment imperatives they creative from them.

UN funding of climate mitigating for poor nations is an example of a modernity dominating the projects.
🧵

GhostOnTheHalfShell,
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@blair_fix

Solar and windmills, instead of permaculture+ecological restoration. I’d rather see the basic necessities degrown first. People and towns everywhere be able to cover food, water, energy and housing with local resources only as much as possible. This is de growth and then we can talk about a much more irrelevant global and national supply chain.

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

A little chart to quantify the torture of writing: the number of words written vs words kept for my last post.

The key (and pain) of good writing is tireless rewriting.

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/03/21/is-bitcoin-more-energy-intensive-than-mainstream-finance/

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar
blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

Critics often argue that cryptocurrencies are too speculative to be 'real' money. What they seem to miss is that lots of 'real' fiat currencies are highly speculative.

Here's how the volatility of Bitcoin and Ether compare to the exchange-rate volatility of the world's fiat currencies.

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/03/21/is-bitcoin-more-energy-intensive-than-mainstream-finance/

caseyjennings,
@caseyjennings@sfba.social avatar

@blair_fix Thanks. Good answer. Does this mean that you are over-weighting the small currencies ?

caseyjennings,
@caseyjennings@sfba.social avatar

@blair_fix and by "overweighting" I mean that in your visualization a very tiny currency has the same weight as the Euro...

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

Here's the energy intensity of Ethereum relative to mainstream US finance. Can you spot the moment when the blockchain switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake?

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/03/21/is-bitcoin-more-energy-intensive-than-mainstream-finance/

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

Here's the energy intensity of Bitcoin relative to US finance.

Satoshi thought Bitcoin would be an 'order of magnitude' more efficient than mainstream banking. So far, the dream hasn't panned out.

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/03/21/is-bitcoin-more-energy-intensive-than-mainstream-finance/

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

A fascinating PhD thesis from Julien Vastenaekels:

'Degrowth and Capital: Assembling a Power-Centred Theory of Change'

It's a timely study that wrestles with how relates to capital accumulation.

https://capitalaspower.com/2024/03/vastenaekels-degrowth-and-capital-assembling-a-power-centred-theory-of-change/

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

Here's the energy budget of the Bitcoin network. Since 2010, it's electricity thirst has grown by a factor of a million.

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/03/21/is-bitcoin-more-energy-intensive-than-mainstream-finance/

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

Well folks, I've waded into the world of Bitcoin.

We all know the Bitcoin network uses loads of energy. But how does it stack up to mainstream finance? In this post I do the math.

(I'm bracing myself for angry comments.)

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/03/21/is-bitcoin-more-energy-intensive-than-mainstream-finance/

blair_fix,
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

If you enjoy my research, consider becoming a supporter. Cheers!

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/membership/

blair_fix, to random
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

I figured out that I could use wordpress as my RSS feed reader. For those who are interested, here are the blogs in my feed:

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/reading/

blair_fix, to NixOS
@blair_fix@mastodon.online avatar

A few months ago I started using and I was blown away. Then I learned about its design principles and I was even more blown away.

Here's the result: a deep dive into how systems manage software, and how nukes this structure and replaces it with a design fit for the 21st century.

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/02/17/nixing-technological-lock-in/

adingbatponder,
@adingbatponder@fosstodon.org avatar

@AngryAnt @blair_fix sure thanks, but the untiy-cli-shell thing... what am I looking at there ? does that all go in the configuration.nix ? what does it do...

AngryAnt,
@AngryAnt@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@adingbatponder @blair_fix Ah if you check the parent directory there's a utility which scans a Unity editor install path and generates a wrapper script for each version found. Those scripts reference this nix file.

The use case is a TeamCity build agent able to use its default integration to run editors installed via the Unity launcher.

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