The Semantics of Bitcoin "Mining"
1068 sats \ 7 comments \ @rheedi0 2 May 2022 bitcoin
The word mining has a bad connotation, it sounds dirty, it doesn't designate that these are just computer servers in a building. -Darin Feinstein, What Bitcoin Did Ep 494, ~ 35:00
I've always liked the term "Mining" because I thought it was a great way to describe the industrial process of generating hashes in Bitcoin. Using it in this context also puts such a cool, scientific spin on a classic word.
But I wonder if there are downsides to using this term, as Darin Feinstein suggests. It has so many negative connotations and imagery associated with it. And more importantly, maybe it is conflating two very different kinds of industrial processes that don't belong in the same category.
Something like Bitcoin "Processing" or "Accounting" could work, but definitely doesn't have the same ring to it. Thinking through this, I start to wonder how much of the language surrounding Bitcoin is still malleable at this stage. I imagine we will find better words as we understand it better. But then again we still call errors in programming "bugs" so who knows. Language is funny.
write
preview
related posts
156 sats \ 1 reply \ @nullcount 2 May 2022
From page 4 of the Bitcoin Whitepaper:
This adds an incentive for nodes to support the network, and provides a way to initially distribute coins into circulation, since there is no central authority to issue them. The steady addition of a constant of amount of new coins is analogous to gold miners expending resources to add gold to circulation.
Originally, there was no distinction between nodes and miners. Every client running Bitcoin was just a node running the hashing to find blocks in the backgroind.
A new class of nodes emerged as the market began to exploit the mining algorithm with increasingly specialized machines.
Satoshi compared the work being done by these new nodes as "mining".
This cemented the name into the culture, probably forever.
reply
10 sats \ 0 replies \ @rheedi0 OP 2 May 2022
Excellent points and reference. I couldn't help tracking down the post I think you are referring to from the bitcointalk forums. I believe this is the one:
It's the same situation as gold and gold mining. The marginal cost of gold mining tends to stay near the price of gold. Gold mining is a waste, but that waste is far less than the utility of having gold available as a medium of exchange.
reply
46 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheBTCManual 2 May 2022
I guess you could call it hashing lol, but that just sounds meaningless, I like the term mining, it has a element of work, of earning. My dad would always refer to heading to work as "going to the salt mine" people get it, trying to tiptoe and greenwash bitcoin for the sake of a minority of people doesn't feel like it would make a difference to their opinion, the heart of the issue is an attack on proof of work
reply
41 sats \ 0 replies \ @fanis 2 May 2022 freebie
I'm not sure the term "mining" has such negative connotations. Of course, it depends on one's own imagery. The first time I heard about it, it made me feel some Gold Rush vibes. I guess for someone already deeply involved in fighting against gold/coal/uranium/rare-earth elements mining, the term would indeed carry a negative connotation. My point is I don't believe the term to be widely perceived as bad. But that could change.
Also, the term "mining" is being used in other computer-related fields. See "Data Mining" for example. It doesn't seem to have a bad connotation there, meaning that the reason we could observe it in "Bitcoin Mining" is to seek elsewhere.
reply
53 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 2 May 2022
While I agree mining has negative connotations, it also has positive ones. One of the common criticisms of Bitcoin is that it isn't tangible and mining carries that connotation.
I start to wonder how much of the language surrounding Bitcoin is still malleable at this stage.
I don't think it is very malleable. Language has network effects and like most things with network effects you'll need to develop a word that's at least 10x better. Accounting, ordering, validating, etc don't fit that bill imo. I actually think mining is a superior term negative connotations included.
reply
20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Brunswick 2 May 2022 freebie
The term mining is actually genius. It shows that it takes energy to produce proof of work, that's what proves its value. This comment about "mining is dirty" is coming from someone that is fighting greeney weenies worried about how energy is used that otherwise would need to be burned up in giant resistor packs otherwise the electrical generator turbines can't maintain temperature and speed and they destroy themselves.
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @2bithits 2 May 2022
Yes, language is always changing.
I was talking about bitcoin to my noob sister. Whenever I said mining she kept having to interrupt with clarification on 'which' kind of mining
IMO mining is better than processing power as it correlates with the physical in words like 'work' & 'speculation'
reply