However, I can easily find many more studies and references on the negative effects of videogaming.
Of course you can. After all, if you wanted to, you could do the same for literally anything. Did you know
drinking water could kill you? And why not talk about negative effects of the number 1 consumer of electricity:
refrigeration? Or those of the number 2:
lighting?
We both know why: because you know they have positive effects as well, and because you know how inconvenient your own life will be without those.
And the same is true for gaming. At the end of the day, humans need entertainment. Whether it be in the form of games or TV/movies or books, we don't like boredom. But if you can swear to God that you won't ever need
any form of entertainment while mining cryptocurrencies, that you'll never need to read a novel or comic book, or watch TV/YouTube/whatever, or go to the cinema, or play video games, or listen to music, or visit a theme park, etc. while you're mining at the same time, maybe
then we can talk about comparing crypto mining to video gaming. Until then, you're just comparing apples to oranges.
Which leads us to the next question: can you find any study or reference on the
positive effects of crypto? And by that I mean the positive effects of
crypto itself, not just the benefit of having access to some alternative currency, which may or may not be crypto, and of which we already have plenty that don't require
destroying the planet. Nor the benefit of making money without effort, which can easily be done by investing in the stock market and cashing in on the dividends without the need to waste an astronomical amount of power. I'm talking about the benefits of crypto in and of itself.
A wise man would conclude that videogaming has both positive and negative aspects ... as does cryptocurrency mining. Are you a wise man?
A loaded question. Classic!
Am I supposed to call myself wise and make myself seem untrustworthy as a result? Or should I say I'm not, and still make myself look untrustworthy? What about you? Are
you a wise man? No need to answer that question. Whether or not you are capable of good judgement is already plenty apparent in your arguments.
If you were a wise man, you wouldn't be comparing the power consumption of gaming, which:
to the power consumption of cryptocurrency mining, which:
- may run on multiple rigs per miner,
- 24/7 every day of the year,
- and completely independently of how the miner is feeling or what they are doing, including the fact that they may be playing video games at the same time on yet another machine.
Furthermore, those of you who've spent your entire life without ever conducting a single financial transaction in anything other than stable US/EU currencies may struggle to see the benefits of a non-fiat currency, but a few years ago when Venezuela neared a hyperinflationary spiral and the government banned citizens from transporting or converting currency , and even from withdrawing their own money from the bank, hundreds of thousands of citizens with Bitcoin were able to escape the worst ravages of the effects.
Except that is not a benefit of Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency. It's the benefit of having access to a relatively stable currency, such as USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, etc. That is exactly how Zimbabwe got out of their very own hyperinflationary spiral,
which they had been stuck in for several years, and is not a feat limited to cryptocurrencies.
Notice how the fiat currencies I've mentioned are actually even more stable than Bitcoin, and thus likely to be even more beneficial to Venzuela's economy. Also notice how Venezuela's adoption of the Bitcoin as the official currency has effectively made the Bitcoin into Venezuela's fiat currency, except that Venezuela's backing is unlikely to impact the Bitcoin's stability in any meaningful way. Once the Bitcoin bubble pops, Venezuela will be left with yet another hyperinflationary crisis, and will require yet another currency to solve, crypto or not.
Try again.