I’m a big Monero fan because I love liberty, but Proof of Work use too much electricity. However it’s the best for security as for now. I really believe that cryptocurrencies (and blockchain) are good for the future, it meant to empower people, the true people not the banks and big corporation. Obviously nothing went as excpected but we’re only at the start of a new financial system. I recently discover Nano, SolarCoin and other “sustainable” cryptocurrencies. So I thought maybe the future can be good for both world, no need of central banks to hold funds (and invest in fossil fuel, money laundering and wars), individuals and communities could handle their funds, makes transactions without third parties involved, people could heat their houses and mine (or whatever it does) with solar energy, Solar Optimal mining of XMR for exemple is a super idea in my opinion. Why not using Wind energy to secure the network, validate the transactions etc… Does anyone already wrote stuff on a perfect cryptocurrency for a solarpunk society ? Also does Nano and SolarCoin looks legit to you are are these just greenwashing shitcoins ?
hmmm, interesting question.
As currencies only work if they serve as mediums of exchange that is widely acceptable in exchange for goods and services. It would have to provide a value that everyone wants/needs. Traditionally governments used taxes to create the initial baseline demand for their issued currency.
The holding of a funds is a non-issue. (You might find Gnu Taler interesting https://taler.net/)
The hard problem is who/what creates value in the desired society and how to fairly allocate the value to the members who contribute that value.
After more deep diving into cryptocurrencies and especially Bitcoin I came to the conclusion that Bitcoin is the most Solarpunk cryptocurrency because it’s PoW favors super cheap energy which is energy that would be lost. Renewable energy potential is often not near people’s home (so it’s expensive to build the infrastructure necessary for people to get it where they lives). The other main problem with renewable energy is that it produce when there is little to no consumption. This way Bitcoin offers an incentive to develop renewable (which isn’t 100% clean but IMO necessary for a better future) and make it more profitable to do so. Also the deflationary nature of Bitcoin gives anyone an incentive to save rather than to spend which is part of the solution to end overconsumerism. The community and decentralized aspect of Bitcoin is also really solarpunk-like as it could revolutionize democracy and power authority. We could see in the future complementary local currencies indexed on Bitcoin rather than on USD (which is backed by weapons, oil and blood). Bitcoin will be backed by all the energy production on earth, “clean” energy.
So with Bitcoin we could get renewable energy everywhere on earth where there is exploitable energy (could end the war that are caused by monopolized energy sources), make a generation wealth rather than individual wealth. It would be the end of control freak government as we know it… Fix the money fix the world as many bitcoiners likes to say.
Obviously we need more than fixing money to get to a solarpunk utopia but if we drop the fiat based monetary system we will have a tons of problems disappearing.
I liked the film Bitcoin is Generational Wealth to illustrate this solarpunk vision of Bitcoin potential future.