Mark Trail Slams Blockchain

Mark Trail

Mark Trail shows up in the Sunday funnies. Yes, we still get the actual Sunday paper, delivered. I read all the comics, including Mark Trail. I don't think it's ever been funny, but it's fine. Usually it's aardvarks and anteaters, but today he wanders off into techo-land, which is a bit of a shock.

Several cryptocurrencies, notably Bitcoin, use blockchain technology. People have invested zillions of dollars building server farms to compute magic checksums to keep this idiotic scheme going. All those server farms consume megawatts of electricity. China recently banned these checksum mining operations because of the amount of electricity they consume, electricity that they need for real life issues, like light and heat. One outfit is planning to build a mining operation in the middle of Texas near the site of a defunct aluminum smelter because why? Because there is coal there, coal they can burn to generate electricity to run their stupid computers.

Is burning coal contributing to global warming? I dunno, and I don't care. What I object to is all these people gobbling up all these computers and electricity for something that could be done with single PC. 'Proof of Work' is what it's called and it's the stupidest idea in the world.