@depecheload: It does require the same amount of ridiculous energy as mining does.
Yes and no. Mining is just the act of validating a block of transaction into the blockchain. It takes the same amount of computational power whether there is 1 or 20 000 transactions inside the block (deploying a contract or sending a mint command is a kind of transaction). So minting an NFT doesn't add or remove to the amount of power needed to validate a block, that is decided by the difficulty of the network. I would need a longer post to explain how the difficulty is adjusted each block but basically it scales with the amount of computational power available in a way to get a fixed averaged validation time between each block (10 minutes for Bitcoin, 15 seconds for Ethereum).
Just to add a little bit of precision AND fire into the whole thing; the energy consumed by validating (i.e. mining) is not the same for all cryptocurrencies. Since we're talking about NFTs and most of it live there, note that the Ethereum blockchain's power consumption is about 1/3 of that of the Bitcoin blockchain.
I saw a lot of people freaking out about mining using as much power annually as Argentina, but that's only for Bitcoin, which as nothing to do with NFTs. It's more like mining Ethereum takes about 33% of the annual power consumption of Argentina! By the way, Bitcoin + Ethereum only account for around 75% of the power consumption of the top 20 coins, so if they both take 133% of Argentina's power, the whole pack takes a nice 177% of Argentina's power need!
But wait, there's more! Estimating power consumption is incredibly hard, the upper and lower limit of that error range is huge! In fact, the numbers used to compare it to Argentina [Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index] have an error range that could mean it is actually 3 time less than we think. Or, 3.5 time worst! Yay!
@omar_comin: Proof of stake (vs proof of work) for cryptocurrency has been "around the corner" for years now with no progress to show for it.
The launch of the Beacon Chain for ETH 2.0 last December and the plethora of cryptocurrencies already using it or something similar begs to differs.
In any cases, the Blockchain tech is a Pandora box that's already been opened and no matter how much people hate it, can't be closed back. We might be in a giant bubble caused by people desperate to make a quick buck but the reality is that even if the price of every cryptocurrencies crashed in the next 5 minutes, the whole system would still be working (even better actually). Thinking that the goal of the tech is to create an ever increasing price rise is just a sever lack of understanding of what the Blockchain actually is.
That being said, of course the whole thing is about money. It's what it was created for. Whether people think that money is a good thing or not is obviously debatable, but it's an undeniable part of modern economy. What the Blockchain allows (in theory) is to take the whole money management infrastructure away from private entities and put it in public where anyone can see it and use it without anyone's permission. And this is something I personally can very much understand. Just look at the whole Robinhood debacle when they blocked users from buying Gamestop's shares to protect privates interest. In a decentralized exchange based on the Blockchain tech (which are already out there), that is something that simply could not have been possible.
Edit: I should note that, personally, I am very much happy about the whole environmental backlash that we are seeing right now. Like I said, I think this tech is here to stay and it's absolutely necessary that we put as much pressure as possible on the devs out there to fix the ridiculous waste of energy their priority.
Oh no, I shouldn't have watched this video... I can feel it. Feel it in my bones. The desire to build again... My next 100h of free time just disappeared before me...
@stordoff: I think IOI learned a lot from their previous games and how people reacted to mission objectives like the one in Sepianza and Whittleton Creek and the way they handle those in Hitman 3 is very smart. It's something I'd like a lot more game to take into account when replayability is a core mechanic. (I'm looking at you DMCV and Bayonneta)
@bisonhero: I'll never not be mad at Super Metroid for making me waste hours searching every corner of the map until I found out I had to bomb the glassed tube to progress.
@pimanrules:My name's not Jan or Ben but as someone who just picked up the game this week, your posts are incredibly useful! I just reached Adept rank on Mahjong Soul and I think I might be hooked?
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