I should be a millionaire. I should be swimming in a pool full of money and not writing things like this to make a living. Today, here, on Earth-1, I barely make ends meet. But in the parallel universe of Earth-2 I'm in Amsterdam, smoking good marijuana, completely unconcerned about my future. The difference between one universe and another is a single miserable mouse click. A click that would have changed my life forever. A click that, in 2011, would have made me the owner of 100 bitcoins for a paltry sum.
A Coin That Rubbed Me the Wrong Way
It was 2011 when at NeoTeo we began writing the first articles about a cryptocurrency called bitcoin. A P2P, decentralized currency that could be mined from a computer like the one I had at the time. Interested, I started reading more about it. The idea immediately rubbed me the wrong way. VERY WRONG.
Used to using the services of the BOINC network, where my computing power was used to look for a cure for cancer (among other things), I didn't understand what that same power would be used for if I started mining bitcoin. Okay, yes, I understood: I would participate in the generation of the blockchain, which serves to store irrefutable information. But at that time, that didn't seem as important to me as participating in expanding our knowledge of the Milky Way or in the search for extraterrestrial life, for example.
The idea still doesn't convince me, to be honest. Unlike most BOINC projects, bitcoin has no utility when it comes to optimizing scientific and technological development, something that – in the end – would serve to improve the world, and not just fill the pockets of a few. It could even be said that blockchain came to perpetuate the injustices and inequities of the system, only in a way that is safer for capitalists. And the truth is that not just anyone can mine bitcoin, as many of its evangelists insist on making us believe; nor will just anyone be able to enjoy the virtues of the much-vaunted blockchain (when that becomes a thing).
To benefit from the system we need to have the right amount to buy the hardware (which is not cheap), as well as enough computer knowledge to start the operation. In other words, there's an enormous barrier that keeps out those who would most need a new world economy, and it only benefits those who already have the most, who can invest their money so that it generates even more money. I then understood that this bitcoin thing was only going to benefit an elite, which sooner or later would concentrate a large part of the generated coins, as has always happened with real money. In the end, I wasn't so wrong.
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I have always wondered if it wouldn't have been better to base the value of the digital currency on the humanitarian benefits resulting from the invested computing power. That is, in something like the BOINC network, but where participants receive coins for helping to make a better world. A 'prize' for participating in solving real problems that would benefit all of humanity, and not a handful of guys with enough money to hoard graphics cards or ASIC units.
A Coin That Rewards Good Deeds
Well, it turns out such a currency exists, since 2013. It's called Gridcoin and it's exactly that: you earn credits (coins) in relation to your contributions to the different BOINC network projects. The best part is that it uses most of the energy invested in helping those scientific projects and only a tiny fraction to write its blockchain. Do you want to know its value? 0.017270 EUR or 0.020201 USD at the time of writing this story (compared to the thousands that each bitcoin is worth). We, humans, always with our priorities clear, right?
In short, that's what I was thinking about when the dilemma presented itself: Did I stop supporting my favorite BOINC projects and start speculating on a cryptocurrency that only a few of us could benefit from? To my misfortune, the principled guy I once was won the battle, and I dismissed the idea of mining bitcoin for humanitarian benefit. Damn you, past me!
The Almost Purchase
The matter didn't end there. Week after week at NeoTeo we wrote about the advances of bitcoin and the idea of missing out on something kept bothering me. What if bitcoin increased in value and I was passing up the chance to get rich for life? How much could it cost me to buy a good amount and speculate a little on the future? Because SETI@HOME wasn't going to leave my PC, that I was sure of, but maybe I could buy a handful of those damn bitcoins and silence that reptilian part of my brain that wouldn't stop nagging me about it.
That's how, once again, I started investigating the matter. And I found, on the Deep Web (where else), an exchanger with a good reputation that accepted PayPal payments. If I remember correctly, 100 bitcoins were going to cost me about 100 dollars, give or take a dollar. All I had to do was place the order, send the money, and receive those 100 little virtual coins in my wallet. Everything was almost ready: I had arranged the amount with the exchanger and had sent it my wallet address. I just had to send it its money to complete the transaction.
And there I was, inside my PayPal, I remember it as if it were yesterday, with the 100 dollars loaded and ready to send by clicking the corresponding button. And what happened? I regretted it. It wasn't because of the 100 dollars. I always worked and could afford that expense, which wasn't a big deal. I regretted it because I felt bad about myself participating in something I didn't agree with, which had come to replace other humanitarian collaborative projects and would only benefit the usual speculators, ruining the party for everyone. My stupid and honorable past self, once again, attacking his future over a matter of principle.
The Regret
Do I regret it? OF COURSE I REGRET IT! Not a week goes by that I don't reproach myself for not having pressed that damn button that would have made me rich beyond all my expectations. Sometimes the hatred is so great that I pray for the value of bitcoin to sink and ruin everyone who ever bet on it; but then I realize it's just my resentment that makes me feel that way, and it passes (until the next time bitcoin goes up a few thousand dollars and I blow up again).
Even so, I still find the whole thing terribly reprehensible (I had to be like Bill Gates in something!). The energy expenditure for the generation of cryptocurrencies is outrageous. In the latest estimates I read, mining consumes more energy than 159 countries combined (source). 159 countries! At a moment in our history when climate change threatens to take us all with it, the harm of cryptocurrency mining is, at least, reprehensible because its impact is significant.
That's without counting the entire communities that have been displaced by miners who settle in their cities, taking advantage of either low temperatures or cheap energy, while seeing their electricity bills grow disproportionately due to the consumption of speculators (source). And all for what? Okay, okay, yes, for the generation of the blockchain (which I hope someday stops being a promise and shows its worth), but above all to fill the pockets of those who already have them quite full.
So at least I have that consolation, which is little... but it's something. I'll be poor, I won't be smoking good cannabis in Amsterdam, but at least I never became what I most despise: a speculator who participates in the destruction of the environment, displaces entire communities (in a kind of technological gentrification) and shifts the focus away from scientific research to make virtual money with which only he saves himself. Because here, on my computer, SETI@HOME is still installed, huh? I'll be laughing when we find signs of extraterrestrial life and they'll have to stick their cryptocurrencies where the sun doesn't shine in the face of the new paradigm shift. Mwahahaha.
