Bitcoin and AI

[davedan]

Here is a reason why Bitcoin may never crash. The Bitcoin network has more computing power than the top 500 supercomputers combined. Elon Musk and Steven Hawking are warning us about AI. IF technology is 10-20, even 50 years ahead of what we can see, who is to say that AI technology is a lot more advanced that what we are seeing with the robot Sophia and other self-driving cars and robots. If you were trying to build an advance general intelligence, you would need more power and a larger computer network. How do you think you could fool the general public into building a large computer network for you? You make up a fake currency and offer to give people the made-up currency in exchange.

https://blockchain.info/charts/hash-rate

If the bitcoin network is really doing computations for an advanced AI, then it may never crash, but continue to evolve and grow more and more powerful.

Do we think all this computer and power usage is just to play a fun guessing game? (14 exahashes/second :: 1 Hash = 12,697 FLOPs)

[Son of Liberty]

A bit off topic but a member I know who just moved to Utah from Alaska is claiming he'll be a millionaire this year thanks to bit coin and bragging on Facebook bitcoin paying for this trip and that. His wife also thanking in hastag for her husband and butcoin for making them rich.

I'd post a screenshot but not sure if allowed.

[harakim]

A bit off topic but a member I know who just moved to Utah from Alaska is claiming he'll be a millionaire this year thanks to bit coin and bragging on Facebook bitcoin paying for this trip and that. His wife also thanking in hastag for her husband and butcoin for making them rich.

I'd post a screenshot but not sure if allowed.

Why wouldn't it be? Just black out the names and eyes.

[marc]

Elon Musk and Steven Hawking are warning us about AI. IF technology is 10-20, even 50 years ahead of what we can see, who is to say that AI technology is a lot more advanced that what we are seeing with the robot Sophia and other self-driving cars and robots. If you were trying to build an advance general intelligence, you would need more power and a larger computer network. How do you think you could fool the general public into building a large computer network for you? You make up a fake currency and offer to give people the made-up currency in exchange.

Would you expound upon this? What is the big deal about AI? How does more computing power help it? What is it about people involved with mining Bitcoins that gives more power to computers and building a super network? This is a very curious thing for me? Hypothetically speaking, who has to gain by this? Rich anonymous people? The government? Both? The same old players with new tools essentially?

[Rand]

It seems to me that if you can mine bitcoins, that AI can gather more and more wealth via that mechanism. This gives it the power to do anything it wants. Never thought we'd be here...

[harakim]

Elon Musk and Steven Hawking are warning us about AI. IF technology is 10-20, even 50 years ahead of what we can see, who is to say that AI technology is a lot more advanced that what we are seeing with the robot Sophia and other self-driving cars and robots. If you were trying to build an advance general intelligence, you would need more power and a larger computer network. How do you think you could fool the general public into building a large computer network for you? You make up a fake currency and offer to give people the made-up currency in exchange.

Would you expound upon this? What is the big deal about AI? How does more computing power help it? What is it about people involved with mining Bitcoins that gives more power to computers and building a super network? This is a very curious thing for me? Hypothetically speaking, who has to gain by this? Rich anonymous people? The government? Both? The same old players with new tools essentially?

The power of AI is determined by the algorithms and by the power of the computers it runs on, so more computing power would mean a better AI. Hypothetically speaking, the AI would benefit from the power in the bitcoin network. In this scenario, it has a mind of its own. Also, most people who got into bitcoins can tell you they lost them all in mysterious ways, so that adds more fuel to the fire that something about bitcoin is trying to use the power without giving you the benefits.

One more thing I thought about are Captchas and that service ChaCha. If the AI has access to currencies then something like this would be really easy for the AI to train itself. It tries to find something in a picture, then sends it out to the Captcha service to verify. (I'm pretty sure that's what the new picture captchas are.) And ChaCha could be used for the same purpose but in a textual manner.
Captchas

[BeNotDeceived]

It seems to me that if you can mine bitcoins, that AI can gather more and more wealth via that mechanism. This gives it the power to do anything it wants. Never thought we'd be here...

Energy is true wealth, AI consumes much of it, depriving others as it mines crypto currencies.

The number of bit coins is finite, meaning alternatives will arise as one bitcoin matches the energy wasted to mine it.

OTEC and/or Nuclear Fusion will fuel the future. 2025 will see the first fusion reactor with subsequent rollout after that. OTEC does much more than produce energy that can feed the world, neutralize hurricanes, and supply fresh water.

Graphene will supply fresh water and help enable energy (wealth) storage. Fusion works anywhere negating much of the need for storage. Mining bitcoin is now developing energy production in desolate places, such as Siberia, Iceland and remote places in China. Besides energy production, there is energy storage and conversion. Cryptos may cause an oversupply of energy production in remote regions and this may stimulate energy storage technology.

Graphene/battery/super-capacitors will compete with hydrogen, just as OTEC will compete with Fusion. Energy storage, transportability and conversion are the building blocks of a perfect monetary system that represents real value. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the next few years, as the first OTEC operations get a jumpstart on Fusion.

Free energy based on what is called the fourth state of water may also play a pivotal role

How does crypto mining in desolate places fit the “abomination of desolation” narrative

Real Intelligence and Nuclear Fusion represents the power of creation; can non celestial societies do either

[nancyvinci92]

The bitcoin is the modern mark of the beast. People have been monetizing out of the situation very well.

[Silver]

So much needless speculation. The truth is on the Internet, you know this tool you're using to post on this forum. There are secure ways to maintain your own cryptocurrencies so that neither AI (come on, folks) nor a hacker will be able to steal it.

What has been stolen from all of us is our heritage, our legacy and our wealth. This evil has been done right under our noses and most of you are laughing, smiling participants as you hold fiat currencies in your hands or purses or wallets. I don't believe that cryptocurrencies are the solution to this problem. However, until you have a better idea, why don't you study, ponder and act against the central banks which have made you all debt slaves?

Instead of making stuff up, educate yourself:
https://www.coindesk.com/information/

[inho]

The mathematics of bitcoin mining is no secret. That is the whole point of bitcoin. So, all those computers mining bitcoin are just doing these calculations. In my opinion, their computational power is used for useless purpose. No AI is using that computational power. To be honest, I think it would be better to use that computational power for other purposes, whether it is an AI or some more traditional computation. Much good could be achieved with it.

[Silver]

A man can use a gun to rob a bank or to defend his family.
A man can use a truck to help a friend move or to run over tourists.
A computer can be used for good or evil.
Proceeds from an investment can be used for good or evil.

Instead of tilting at windmills, attack the root problem. What is the best countermeasure to the world's problems?

[friendsofthe]

Silver wrote:
What is the best countermeasure to the world's problems?

Answer... The Second Coming.... It's our only way out!

[Silver]

There are some graphics at the link below that really deserve your attention. Whether you want to invest in Blockchain technology or not, it's coming. Did you hesitate learning about the Internet in its early development stages? Are you constantly using the Internet now? What happened?

https://decentralize.today/bitcoin-is-t ... -4d795f0ed

Miguel CunetaFollow
Co-founder at Satoshi Citadel Industries (www.sci.ph). Building the Blockchain Ecosystem in the Philippines since 2014. Views and opinions are my own.
Dec 9
Bitcoin Is The Total Opposite of a Ponzi Scheme — Here’s Why

What is a ‘Ponzi Scheme’, you ask?

“A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. The Ponzi scheme generates returns for older investors by acquiring new investors. This is similar to a pyramid scheme in that both are based on using new investors’ funds to pay the earlier backers. For both Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes, eventually there isn’t enough money to go around, and the schemes unravel.” — Investopedia

Other than using the Tulip analogy, if you want to let the world know that you are completely ignorant about Bitcoin Technology, saying “Bitcoin is a ponzi!” is your best bet. It shows a fundamental lack of ability to do basic research into something you don’t understand, before making any broad assertions about it.

When you understand the technology behind Bitcoin and the reason it was invented, you will see that it is actually the total opposite of a Ponzi scheme.

Let’s break it down:

“A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors.”

If you have not read the original proposal paper of Satoshi Nakamoto published in late 2008, you should. It’s eight pages long, quite technical, but is not too hard to digest. You’ll notice that never in that paper does it mention any kind of return on an “Investment” in Bitcoin. It never even mentions a price for one Bitcoin. It simply practically solved one of the oldest problems in computer science, the byzantine general’s problem, and thus established its value in the process. Bitcoin’s value proposition was never profit-driven, and holding Bitcoins in the early years was seen as “just for geeks” or “magic internet money”, sarcasm included.

Absolutely nothing about Bitcoin is a secret. It is one of the most open technologies in the world. It’s open source, anyone can review the code, anyone can contribute to the code, anyone can run the software voluntarily and participate in the network, and anyone can use the network without permission. The entire history of all Bitcoin transactions is visible to anyone in the world too.

It’s a total paradigm shift from any kind of financial system in the history of mankind. It’s the total opposite of a fraudulent investing scam, which is shrouded in vague promises of high returns with capital inflows and outflows that are kept in a secret ledger.

“The Ponzi scheme generates returns for older investors by acquiring new investors. This is similar to a pyramid scheme in that both are based on using new investors’ funds to pay the earlier backers.”


Image from HYIP.COM
Bitcoin doesn’t generate returns. It’s just software. The price of Bitcoin is directly correlated to its scarcity and demand. The demand is not forced on others, nor do Bitcoin’s biggest proponents go around asking people for money and telling them to invest more into Bitcoin. New users that join the Bitcoin network don’t fund the older users with new money. Not at all. It’s just plain lazy to make this assertion.

In typical pyramid scheme, the founders will be the richest ones, guaranteed. The more people join, the bigger they’ll earn, as all the money flows to the top. They give their initial investment, and then they entice others to invest as well, funneling these funds into their pockets. This is the only way they can make money. In a ponzi scheme, the value for early investors rely solely on new entrants coming in with fresh capital, and their earnings come directly from this capital.

With Bitcoin, the opposite is true. A lot of people who got in early on Bitcoin are not around today to enjoy their 50,000 % returns on their investments. I know many people who bought thousands of Bitcoins and spent them on things like Pizza, mining rigs, gambling sites, video games, and even weed or other drugs. Hell, I lost several dozen Bitcoins back in 2014 playing Blackjack on stupid gambling sites and Satoshi Dice! I also gave away a lot of Bitcoins to people, small amounts that today would be worth 50 to 60 times its value.

Old Bitcoin “Hodlers”, the ones that truly held onto their Bitcoins after all these years, are few and far between. Some of them are insanely wealthy today due to the market price of Bitcoin skyrocketing, but their net worth is not realized in fiat currency terms, just accounted for using them for convenient accounting purposes. They measure their net worth in the amount of Bitcoins they hold, not in its fiat value.

They didn’t “cash out” and get rich. In fact, it’s the opposite. Old Bitcoin hodlers are the ones who will never sell their Bitcoins. Maybe some will sell a small fraction of their holdings to support themselves, but usually this is done not in a cash out but in a value exchange using Bitcoins as the medium i.e. they will pay for their new house, car, or investment using the Bitcoins themselves, to someone who wants the Bitcoins. The people that want the Bitcoins are in no way coerced or fooled into doing so — in fact, they seek people who are willing to pay them with Bitcoins. And believe me, most people don’t want to easily part with their Bitcons. People spend bad money before they spend good money, and Bitcoin is far superior than any kind of money in the world today.

In a Ponzi, the oldest members will one day dump it all for cash, leaving new entrants holding the bag, so to speak.

In Bitcoin, new “investors” who are in it to get-rich-quick are actually the weakest hands. They will dump their Bitcoins at a loss with the slightest sign of a downturn in price.

Their Bitcoins eventually end up with someone like me, and many others I know, who understands the technology and finds utility in it as a superior store of value or as a permissionless, censorship resistant, and secure transfer protocol. We are the people who will never dump our Bitcoins one day in some imaginary future just to profit, but we will gladly use it as a medium of exchange for something we want or need, or to give back to the world either by investing it in worthwhile projects or helping others. Obtaining cash is not a goal, it never will be.

Unlike other financial systems out there fueled by pure greed, some of the old Bitcoin holders are also some of the most generous people on earth. Recently, an early Bitcoin adopter donated over $1 Million to Andreas Antonopoulos (she donated 37 BTC and then another 42 BTC shortly after). Andreas, one of Bitcoin’s most selfless proponents, recently told people that although he got into Bitcoin in 2012, his advocacy of teaching people about Bitcoin around the world made him spend a lot of his early holdings, putting him in a position that made him unable to enjoy the price gains of 2017. She then said that, without him, she would not have started in Bitcoin — and then promptly sent over $1 Million to his Bitcoin address to show her gratitude.

Show me a ponzi schemer that does that, and I’ll give you all my Bitcoins.

For us, Bitcoin is the end game. We cashed out, alright. We cashed out of the current system we were using because we had no choice, it was forced upon us.

Now we have a choice.

“For both Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes, eventually there isn’t enough money to go around, and the schemes unravel.”


Bitcoin has since increased by 500% since this was published
The image above is a bit outdated, but gives a nice perspective of the size of Bitcoin compared to the rest of the world’s wealth. Check out this visualization for a better view of all the world’s money, including Bitcoin.

For the “not enough money to go around” argument to happen with Bitcoin, it would literally mean that the $7.6 Trillion coins and notes of all countries, the $7.7 trillion dollars in Gold, the $74 Trillion in stock markets, and the $90 Trillion dollars in the global broad money supply would have to flow into Bitcoin.

Using these examples, Bitcoin’s has a maximum upside of around $180 Trillion, not including the $217 Trillion real estate market and $544 Trillion derivatives market. At $180 Trillion, the price of one Bitcoin will be, at the maximum of 21 million Bitcoins, about $8,500,000. Will it ever happen? Probably not. Will Bitcoin take a big bite out of these markets? It already started.

Bitcoin today, called a ponzi and bubble by “experts” are worth a grand total of $200 Billion, a drop in the ocean of global commerce.

“Experts Hate Them!”

Several so-called economic experts have called Bitcoin a ponzi or a bubble, just like how some experts called the internet a worthless idea. They are not evil, nor are they our enemies. They are just ignorant and short sighted. It’s not our job to try to convince them and argue with them about it — our job is to keep building value for the network, putting in the hours of work, and developing the ecosystem for future generations.

Bitcoin opened up a pandora’s box of new innovation that has spawned a $300 Billion market and an even bigger global industry in just eight years, with no signs of stopping, creating immense value on a global scale. This value is there not because new investors bought into the system. It’s the thousands of startups and businesses built on this technology creating tens of thousands of jobs, services that provide value in the savings they provide to users, infrastructure, hardware, software and applications, and much more that bring value to the table.

The market’s determination of what one Bitcoin is worth has nothing to do with greater fools getting in the system, but an after effect of the it’s true value proposition, one that it already had even when it was worth nothing.

Bitcoin will not unravel because the ones that truly understand it will never cash out. We don’t want cash, we want Bitcoin. Why would we trade a finite, scarce, and valuable asset for infintely printable pieces of paper?

Bitcoin is not a bubble — It’s the pin.

For us and many thousands of others, we are not waiting for exit. Bitcoin IS the exit.

[LdsMarco]

Friend just posted this on Facebook:

I hate to be the bearer of bad news guys but I think BitCoin is a trap to roll out a digital New World Order one-world-currency.

You heard it here first.

The powers-that-shouldn't-be want to engineer a collapse of the current unconstitutional fiat currency (monopoly money) and replace it with a cashless society where all transactions are tracked.

The powers-that-shouldn't-be have plans to transition BitCoin (cryptocurrency) into an always tracked currency.

There was an essay written in 1997 by the NSA entitled, "HOW TO MAKE A MINT: THE CRYPTOGRAPHY OF ANONYMOUS ELECTRONIC CASH"

And it further says in the document:

"This research Essay was prepared by NSA employees in furtherance of the study of cryptography."

"The authors are mathematical cryptographers at the National Security Agency's Office of Information Security Research and Technology."

So how would the NSA know about cryptocurrency years before it was ever invented?

You know the NSA don't you? The National Slavery Agency, oh I mean the National "Security" Agency that is so good at preventing terrorist attacks that they haven't managed to prevent a single one. Even though they told us they prevented at least 50 attacks yet never provided any proof.

That's what we like to call "lying". Everything the powers-that shouldn't-be says is the opposite of the truth.

War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.

So if they say in their document "anonymous" you can bet they have that pesky: 'say the opposite of what you mean disease'

I suggest reading the book "1984" to figure out what's really going on in the world, reading your scriptures, listening to Ron Paul and studying and understanding the U.S. Constitution and the principles of Liberty!

The truth always triumphs in the end.

[Michelle]

We don't always agree, but I saw this video the first time it was posted on LDSFF and I recommend all watch it.

I think Bitcoin and blockchaining are crucial to AI's rise in connection with the beast spoken of in both the books of Revelation and Daniel.

[Silver]

We don't always agree, but I saw this video the first time it was posted on LDSFF and I recommend all watch it.

I think Bitcoin and blockchaining are crucial to AI's rise in connection with the beast spoken of in both the books of Revelation and Daniel.

Sorry, Michelle, but your concerns are misplaced. Go attack the Federal Reserve system with equal vigor and you will be on the right track.

For example, try to open a bank account or get a home loan without your social security number. You've had the mark of the beast on you for a lot longer than Blockchain has been around.

We have been warned about secret combinations since 1830 when The Book of Mormon was published. I'm pretty sure these recent vintage Sophia-bots are not the droids you're looking for.

[Silver]

Please humor old Uncle Silver and try very hard to comprehend the magnitude of what this article is saying. Spoiler alert: It says Americans are debt slaves. If you'll let that distill upon your soul, then you might be able to understand how an alternative currency might have certain favorable consequences.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-1 ... fed-policy

And So Begins The Rug-Yank Phase Of Fed Policy

Dec 15, 2017 10:45 AM

Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,

The political differences of today’s leading two parties are not over ultimate questions of principles. Rather, they’re over opposing answers to the question of how a goal can be achieved with the least sacrifice. For lawmakers, the goal is to promise the populace something for nothing while pretending to make good on it.

Take the latest tax bill, for instance. The GOP wants to tax less and spend more. The Democrat party wants to tax more and spend even more. We don’t recall seeing any proposals to tax less, spend less, and shrink the size of the state. And why would we?

Today’s central planners and social engineers are enlightened and progressive. They know much more about anything and everything than the rest of us. In particular, they share a general sense that they know how to spend your money better than you.

At best, the central planners call your money to Washington so they can then distribute it back to your friends and neighbors. In reality, the lawmakers call your money to Washington where they distribute it to their friends and neighbors – not yours. This is not a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of fact.

Is it a coincidence that the top three wealthiest counties in the country are in the shadow of the Capitol in the D.C. suburbs? What it is exactly that the residents of these counties do that’s of tangible value is unclear. However, what is clear is that bogus government jobs in Loudoun County and Fairfax County, Virginia, pay big bucks. But that’s not all…

Garbage In Garbage Out
Further up the eastern seaboard, Wall Street has a good thing going too. The big bankers and brokers make big bucks extracting capital from Main Street America. That’s a fair characterization, right?

Perhaps the big bankers and brokers really are efficiently allocating capital to its highest and best use. Who knows? But as far as we can tell, they’re gambling with other people’s money – and collecting fees regardless of how their coin tosses fall. It’s always, ‘heads I win, tails you lose.’ Not a bad fugazi gig, if you can get it.

Of course, the cornerstone of it all is the Federal Reserve. Through what they call “open market operations,” the Fed rigs the game in Washington’s and Wall Street’s favor. Indeed, the process is really quite elegant.

Under the smokescreen cover of garbage in economic data, the Fed’s economists produce garbage out bar charts and line graphs. These, in short, are fabricated depictions of the economy’s growth, consumer and producer prices, personal consumption expenditures, unemployment rate, and whatever other aggregate metrics are deemed to be of vital importance. What’s more, these fabricated depictions serve as the basis for the Fed’s monetary policy decisions.

Do the graphs show price inflation heating up or cooling down? What about GDP or the unemployment rate? Is one going up while the other’s going down? Is one going down while the other’s going up?

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) deliberates over these questions about every six weeks. Then the Fed goes to work inflating the nation’s money supply, with the occasional rug yank, for the stated purpose of getting the charts and graphs to illustrate the garbage data to their liking. What to make of it?

The Rug Yank Phase of Fed Policy
From the outside, the Fed’s economists and planners appear to be esteemed professionals, making decisions with the intent of providing for the greater good of the country. They even attend economic conferences and forums where they present their latest research findings on abstract topics like liquidity traps. Some of their studies even include footnotes, as if the professional economists are building upon a concrete knowledge base of human intellect.

Yet beneath this cover of bogus science, the real sausage is made. Capital is borrowed into existence where it is directed to Washington and Wall Street. There, having first dibs on this phony money, Washington and Wall Street get to spend it as if it has real value.

However, the real value does not coming from the Fed’s phony money. In fact, as this new phony money appears on the scene, it extracts incremental wealth from the workers and producers across the country that – through their time, talent, and labor – created the wealth to begin with.

At the moment, we’re in the rug yank phase of the Fed’s monetary policy. This is where they reel back credit ever so slightly after letting it run wild over the last decade. This tightening of credit markets has the effect of pulling the rug out from under financial markets and the economy.

Monetary policy, without question, is not an exact science. It’s rudimentary guess work that’s based on committee interpretations of bogus data. This week, the FOMC raised the federal funds rate by 0.25 percent to between 1.25 and 1.5 percent. This marks the third increase this year and the fifth increase this cycle.

Incidentally, Janet Yellen also delivered her last press conference as Chair of the Federal Reserve, though she’ll likely still Chair the FOMC meeting scheduled for late January. Then Jay “Count Dracula” Powell will take over the helm of the nation’s central bank. The broad expectation is for Powell to continue the rate increase playbook that Yellen has laid out, which includes three quarter percent hikes in 2018.

We wish Powell the best in his endeavors. But we suspect he’ll unwittingly pull the rug out from under financial markets and the economy before he completes his first year. After that, the fun really begins.

[Silver]

A very good comment below the article in the preceding post.

Dec 15, 2017 11:18 AM
Well, I make it a point whenever discussing money to inform people as to how money really comes into existence. It really chaps their hides when they "get it." You can see a light go off in their heads as they get angry for paying bankers interest for they themselves creating money.

It really works, and I always start out with a mortgage as an example, but you can do it with credit cards or any type of loan.

People get really pissed off when they realize that the bankers do not have some big pile of money (deposits) that they turn around and lend out to you.

I used to get confused when I thought about how banks worked (as I was taught). I couldn't understand how a bank could lend out your deposit and what happened if you wanted it back (I was young at the time, just started a paper route). Now that I know the truth, I realize that the whole bank deposit thing is mainly there to make you think the bank functions like they used to a long time ago. Because if enough people ever realized that the bank has the ability to create fungible credit out of thin air and then charge you interest on it, well it would not be long before bankers would start to disappear.

If people really get interested I start to let them in on the exponential nature of that credit money system and how all this "pay off the debt" talk is bull.

pods

[Silver]

https://twitter.com/SatoshiLite

Charlie Lee [LTC]‏Verified account
@SatoshiLite
3h3 hours ago
More Charlie Lee [LTC] Retweeted Charlie Lee [LTC]
The number of people upset at me for donating to WikiLeaks shows why censorship resistant is so important. If those people can, they would stop everyone from donating.

The point is, it's my money and only I decide what I do with it. Period.

A monetary statement, not political.

[Michelle]

I am well aware how banks work and the current state of fraud associated with the creation of "money." I just don't think money is going to have much to do with it. (Even though I know it says one won't be able to buy and sell without the mark of the beast.)

The greater concern is not money, the Lord can provide manna from heaven if needed to feed his children. It is agency.

I could care less about bitcoin as a means of exchange. I care about bitcoin because it is being used to buy up computing power by those who choose to trade what their computer can provide in terms of processing for whatever bobble is offered. I care because I believe that computing power is and will be used to advance the creation of AI. I care because I believe that AI will be used to coerce people into accepting an even greater bondage than pocket change and debt: but the selling of their souls, wills and agency to the beast in exchange for a mess of pottage.

I care about bitcoin advancing AI, because I believe that as mankind tries to circumvent the Plan of Salvation whereby all men are resurrected and made immortal by the only name that can save:Christ; they will instead sell there souls to Satan in an attempt at immortality that celebrates immorality.

As men and machine mix we will see the actual fulfillment of Daniel 2:42-43 and the end of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the "great image."

42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

Money/cryptocurrency is just the carrot being dangled to buy men's agency and birthright.

[inho]

I care about bitcoin because it is being used to buy up computing power by those who choose to trade what their computer can provide in terms of processing for whatever bobble is offered.

That is not how it works. The computing power of bitcoin miners can't be used to whatsoever purpose. The miners just do the pre-defined (useless) calculations. No one can take advantage of the computing power of the miners.