For potentially large communities or a large enough group of related small communities, it can be. A core of people could spin up their own server off their own back and/or through donations. Communities exist this way outside of reddit already, this would just be a way to tap into a common interface and interoperability that federation provides. Or is there some centralised thing that means that no matter what someone might impose restrictions?

But not video and maybe limited images to keep costs in check. Maybe video hosting through unlisted youtube videos if that doesn’t get curbed.

What is keeping prices high now is particularly nvidia but also amd transitioning more to an AI/ML pro/server/datacentre market, consumer GPU’s are not a big let alone majority of the pie. They’re simply not making enough consumer cards and don’t care that very little cards are sold because they’re getting ludicrous prices on what does sell. intel gen 2 needs to be good in the mid range to provide competition again, the problem is a distinct lack of competition.

Also I really don’t appreciate your passive aggressive way of calling me a liar

They’re not wrong to do so when most of your points are outdated or crap:

the overhead for making the transaction is just a non-starter

Outdated

if the power goes out, your wallet goes with it

Bullshit

For a decentralized currency, people sure do love centralizing under large exchanges, and the massive losses, thefts, fraud, etc. have shown that no matter how “decentralized” it’s supposed to be, it’s still susceptible to the same bullshit as any other currency

Privacy coins are the best way to live the dream of fungible secure currency, which is why they’re being suppressed. All the others are an experiment in how to monitor transactions more deeply.

Its high profile association with grifters, scammers, malware, and dark web shenanigans has completely soured its image in the public mind

If I may don a tin foil hat, likely left rampant by design. The proof of concept has been done, the tech works and has been in the hands of the public long enough that it’s normalized. This may be to pave the way for countries to replace their currency with “legit” crypto versions in the next decade or two, which requires putting a bullet in the head of the rest.

It’s entirely a speculative investment scam now.

If you talk in absolutes you’re destined to be wrong.

The issue with retail is how long it takes for a bitcoin transaction to be confirmed. The overhead simply isn’t feasible. A vendor isn’t going to sit around an wait an hour for confirmation that payment has been received.

Outdated.

And yes, let me be perfectly clear: I absolutely do want cryptocurrency to fail. That’s not about being a shill for government hegemony. It’s about there being literally no inherent good in it, either in principle or in practice. From the fact that it consumes more energy than entire countries and pumps more CO2 into the atmosphere than entire major industries, to the environmental impact of increased mining for rare earths, increased manufacturing strain, and supply chain disruption due to the demand for the chips to drive the miners.

At some point PoW will probably die a death and PoS will be all that remains. PoS is cheap.