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Linux Inventor Says He Doesn’t Believe in Crypto (u.today)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

641 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, does not believe in cryptocurrencies, calling them a vehicle for scams and a Ponzi scheme.
Torvalds was once rumored to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, but he clarified it was a joke and denied owning a Bitcoin fortune.
Torvalds also dismissed the idea of technological singularity as a bedtime story for children, saying continuous exponential growth does not make sense.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

Crypto is just a waste of resources, similar to AI

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Crypto - Meh, I have digital banking and payment processing already, with easy enough international transfers. I'm good.

AI - I see the possibilities, I think we should continue to develop it even if just for the medical applications of machine learning. Right now people just like playing with it, but, privacy issues aside, I don't think it's a waste.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Crypto is worse tho, it requires about the same amount of energy as the entire global banking network, but only serves less than a percentage of the transactions

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I think both have their uses. A true state backed cryptocurrency used interchangeably with physical cash could be quite useful. Crypto as it is now not so much.

AI has a bunch of useful applications in medicine, manufacture, research, monitoring... But where we see it is language models, art remixes, and deep fakes.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

Nah it's literally a waste of physical resources. Crypto currency is a waste of fossil fuels. AI has its functions at least.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

A true state backed cryptocurrency used interchangeably with physical cash could be quite useful.

What advantage does this give over a simple digital currency?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Ai has function. Unlike crypto

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

And the state

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

POS does not consume resources.
This goes to show how low-effort the criticism campaigns are.
However... all cryptos have their health tied to bitcoin which is a large energy consumer. So the point is actually still very true (due to some other reason).