I mean, why are non-crypto consumers better than crypto ones from a utilitarian POV? (I play video games and dislike crypto - I'm just asking). I suppose that people do things other than gaming with 3080s, because I would be hard pressed to make a convincing argument that gaming is somehow so much more valuable of a hobby than mining crypto that it's worth the hit to general purpose computing to specifically ban crypto
I think the missing factor here is that mining groups are sort of like neo-feudalists.
If crypto ends up becoming the de facto world currency, then mining groups that are already wealthy purchasing all available stock of GPUs to mine and further enrich themselves is sort of like if 70% of land was owned by wealthy nobles, and they used the profits from their land ownership to purchase all new land-producing/discovering capital and therefore become the owners of all new land coming onto the market. It's like the worst nightmare of those worried about income inequality. And it just so happens to affect retail consumers who just want "land" for other purposes than becoming richer.
> 70% of land was owned by wealthy nobles, and they used the profits from their land ownership to purchase all new land-producing/discovering capital and therefore become the owners of all new land coming onto the market
So, basically, like REITs? It's funny that graphics card feature sets are what generate moral outrage when a feudal regression happening in real time before our very eyes in regards to the basic necessities of life.
I use my GPU to render visualizations for my work and for educational YouTube videos. It's not just gaming, but even then, belittling gaming is kind of silly. Entertainment has value too, and that entertainment supports lots of actual people doing actual work.
And crypto itself is the biggest hit to general purpose computing outside of the walled garden world of phones. What computing can be done if crypto speculation consumes all available computing power?
