Why We Need Crypto Payments to Work

Crypto has always held out the promise of a payments revolution. But that revolution never happened.

We’re 13 years into the Bitcoin age, and there’s only one store in my neighborhood in downtown Montreal that advertises that it accepts bitcoin (BTC). I was passing by that store the other day and noticed that a vandal had crossed out the bright orange ₿ written on the storefront, adding a « non » in protest.

Why? The vandal didn’t provide us with more information. But if I had to guess it probably had to do with their opinions on the environmental implications of bitcoin’s security method, proof-of-work. Proof-of-work requires huge amounts of electricity, and in an age of global warming there’s no place for such an awesome display of energy consumption.

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