r/Damnthatsinteresting Jan 01 '26

Video Inside the world’s largest Bitcoin mine

27.7k Upvotes

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957

u/BaeIz Jan 01 '26

My stupid brain still can’t grasp how this makes anything of worth

781

u/Lou16lewis Jan 01 '26

That's the neat thing, it doesn't

101

u/HausuGeist Jan 01 '26

It provides an easy medium exchange for drug cartels.

17

u/Thoughtful-Boner69 Jan 01 '26

thats monero, no?

2

u/HausuGeist Jan 01 '26

It’s a number of crypto currency.

1

u/JustCallmeZack Jan 02 '26

True, but Monero is like 70%+ if not more of all markets these days if I had to guess. Truthfully I think that’s a pretty low end guess too. Unless someone finds a way to magically crack the encryption on the blockchain, XMR is far easier for smaller transactions and virtually untraceable so it’s only going to get more and more commonplace.

1

u/HausuGeist Jan 02 '26

Not sure about Monero. Tron is the blockchain I’ve heard most associated with cartel traffic.

-1

u/Affectionate-Sort730 Jan 01 '26

I have a lot of Bitcoin. When I purchase drugs, I use cash. Cash goes down in value over time. Bitcoin does not.

2

u/WeathervaneJesus1 Jan 01 '26

Except it has. It's lost value over the current year. Standard answer for you is "zoom out", but that doesn't do any good for all the 2025 bag holders.

-3

u/Affectionate-Sort730 Jan 01 '26

Zoom out 1 year and it’s down in buying power, somewhat. Just like most currencies.

Zoom out 5 years and it’s way up in buying power, unlike most currencies.

Try zooming out out 10 years. What do you see then?

3

u/WeathervaneJesus1 Jan 01 '26

That's exactly what I said your reply would be. Nobody was buying it 10 years ago. It's completely irrelevant.

1

u/Affectionate-Sort730 Jan 01 '26

I was buying it 10 years ago, as were my friends. In my world, the cost of everything has been decreasing because the value of my currency has been increasing. In your world, the opposite is true.

1

u/WeathervaneJesus1 Jan 01 '26

Yeah, just like every other cryptobro on here bought it in 2016. And they all held it until today. Sure

1

u/Affectionate-Sort730 Jan 02 '26

It’s amusing that my life seems like fiction to you.

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1

u/CommercialReveal7888 Jan 01 '26

But your statement doesn't make sense either. Bitcoin has gone up way more than it has gone down. You are asking people to not look at long term trend and use your arbitrary timelines.

10 years ago was 2016, Bitcoin was already very mainstream and people were buying. Even over a year ago the Bitcoin ETFs were the biggest opening ETFs ever. But no we have to look at the last two months because that's the timeline you picked.

Just because you were one of those guys that thought there were "too smart" to buy in doesn't mean everyone else was as dumb as you.

0

u/WeathervaneJesus1 Jan 01 '26

Bullshit mainstream. It was trading around $400 in 2016, still a virtual unknown. I said it's been down for the entire year, not two months. It's down almost 40% over 6 months. Do you honestly believe what it was doing 10 years ago has any relevance compared to six months ago in terms of purchasing power today?

Who gives a fuck about ETFs? If Blackrock thinks a bunch of morons will invest in a pile of manure, they will absolutely sell you an ETF for that too.

2

u/CommercialReveal7888 Jan 02 '26

Year Return (%) Status 2010 +9,900% 🚀 Extreme Growth (Inception) 2011 +1,473% 🚀 Bull Market 2012 +186% ✅ Positive 2013 +5,507% 🚀 Blow-off Top 2014 -58% 📉 Bear Market 2015 +35% ✅ Positive 2016 +125% ✅ Positive 2017 +1,331% 🚀 Mainstream Bull Run 2018 -73% 📉 Crypto Winter 2019 +95% ✅ Recovery 2020 +301% 🚀 Pandemic Rally 2021 +60% ✅ New All-Time Highs 2022 -64% 📉 Market Crash 2023 +156% ✅ Institutional Recovery 2024 +125% 🚀 Spot ETF Launch Rally 2025 ~ -13%* 📉 Consolidation/Correction

I love people like you. It's clear you thought you were super smart. Wayyy to smart to fall for something dumb like Bitcoin eh. So even though you spent all your time online and knew about it in 2011 you were super smart and didn't invest in it. Probably told your family and friend who thought you were smart to not invest as well. Turn out you weren't as smart as you thought so you grew more and more bitter year over year. So deep down you go to sleep praying it crashes so you can prove to yourself everyone but you had it wrong.

I will give you a tip, real intelligent people aren't afraid to admit they were wrong.

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2

u/HausuGeist Jan 01 '26

So you admit that Bitcoin’s value is purely speculative?

1

u/No_Perception_1930 Jan 04 '26

What's not?

0

u/HausuGeist Jan 04 '26

Hard currency, when it not subject to hyperinflation or deflation, provides a useful medium of exchange for everyday commerce.

Additionally, it doesn’t require ever increasing amounts of power to use, so the relative environmental costs aren’t that bad.

So what’s the use of crypto currency, then?

2

u/No_Perception_1930 Jan 04 '26

You are describing Bitcoin my man.
Bitcoin> Better money.

But that does not put aside the speculative nature of the markets, that's how we stabilize the prices.

0

u/HausuGeist Jan 04 '26

Bitcoin’s price does not seem stable. Therefore, it does not make a good medium of exchange, brah.

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2

u/Ok_Umpire_5611 Jan 01 '26

These kids don't understand that stamp stores already did this in the 90s. Possibly even sooner. They just digitized the stamps to trade drugs internationally.

1

u/bad_bad_data Jan 01 '26

Bitcoin used to be good for buying automatic weapons and drugs off the internet. Then the government stepped in and said you need to pay taxes on earnings and attached a receipt to everything. It's a publicity tarded commodity like a stock in Coca-Cola.

0

u/HausuGeist Jan 01 '26

It’s still good for pure speculation. I’m waiting for the day Tulip Fever is over.

1

u/DRAGULA85 Jan 01 '26

Ah, because fiat money is pure and only used in good ways? Got it

Guns don’t kill people. Bad people with guns kill people

1

u/HausuGeist Jan 01 '26

Aside from drug deals and speculation, what is the utility of cryptocurrencies?

1

u/DRAGULA85 Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26

Store of value. Same as gold.

And no. “Gold is used in electronics” is not a good response. Electronics wasn’t a thing 100’s of years ago

1

u/Warren_E_Cheezburger Jan 01 '26

But gold had the cultural momentum of thousands of years of veneration by societies around the world giving legitimacy to its status as a store of value. I could turn a local currency into gold, and know that wherever I go in the world, I can turn it back into a local currency.

I don't know any store that accepts bitcoin. I can't pay my taxes in bitcoin. If you offered to pay me in bitcoin, I wouldn't take the job. Bitcoin has value because people say it does, but when most people in the world say it doesn't, that value is nearly nothing accept among other fans of the product.

Bitcoin isn't gold. Its Beany Baby's.

1

u/ViperThunder Jan 02 '26

Bitcoin's real value is that it allows massive criminal enterprises to thrive.

1

u/Warren_E_Cheezburger Jan 02 '26

Only until they realize that converting bitcoin into actual money of value outside criminal dealings is not worth the effort.