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> So each transaction costs 11000/2000=5.5 USD No, each transaction costs at most $5.50 USD. You haven't established any lower bound in your calculations. A be

by aianus 11y ago

> So each transaction costs 11000/2000=5.5 USD No, each transaction costs at most $5.50 USD. You haven't established any lower bound in your calculations. A better approach would be to calculate the average number of hashes required to mine a block and the power efficiency of the latest generation ASIC miners. Also, for what it's worth, $5 is much cheaper than a Western Union or SWIFT wire transfer so even this upper bound doesn't mean Bitcoin is uneconomical compared to modern banking.

xigency 11y ago
Except environmentally, you need to look at the energy footprint of Western Union compared to the network of Bitcoin miners, not the price of electricity or amount of coins awarded.
- Mtinie 11y ago
  Western Union's energy footprint is no doubt large. Is it larger than the Bitcoin networks? I don't know, but WU has extensive infrastructure in place all over the World, so it's not a simple case of Bitcoin being the only ecologically unsound option of the two.
- gnaritas 11y ago
  No, you need to look at the energy footprint of the entire currency system including printing and movement of cash, not just Western Union.
brg1007 11y ago
Meanwhile in Europe I'm paying 30 cents for bank transfers within the EU up to 50K.
- notahacker 11y ago
  and in a country where Western Union is actually the preferred payment option, the transaction fee allows a recipient that may not even own a computer to go to a shop in their village and collect local currency they can actually spend on the things they need
- matt_wulfeck 11y ago
  That's a shame. I just transferred money from one bank to another here in the US and it was free. To my surprise it also happened instantly!
  - tormeh 11y ago
    Is this a recent development?
ksrm 11y ago
This chart shows that the cost per transaction is around $8: https://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transaction https://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transaction I believe this is because the average block size is less than 1 MB: https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-block-size https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-block-size
aws_ls 11y ago
>much cheaper than a Western Union or SWIFT wire transfer But in practice, even when a user moves bitcoins between their own wallets its results in that transaction getting registered in the block chain. Which is very unnecessary, costly, inefficient and also may compromise the user's privacy. That's why IMHO some kind of solution whether it is lightning network[1] or sidechains is needed. [1] https://lightning.network/ https://lightning.network/

by aianus 11y ago

xigency 11y ago

Except environmentally, you need to look at the energy footprint of Western Union compared to the network of Bitcoin miners, not the price of electricity or amount of coins awarded.

Mtinie 11y ago
Western Union's energy footprint is no doubt large. Is it larger than the Bitcoin networks? I don't know, but WU has extensive infrastructure in place all over the World, so it's not a simple case of Bitcoin being the only ecologically unsound option of the two.
gnaritas 11y ago
No, you need to look at the energy footprint of the entire currency system including printing and movement of cash, not just Western Union.

brg1007 11y ago

Meanwhile in Europe I'm paying 30 cents for bank transfers within the EU up to 50K.

notahacker 11y ago
and in a country where Western Union is actually the preferred payment option, the transaction fee allows a recipient that may not even own a computer to go to a shop in their village and collect local currency they can actually spend on the things they need
matt_wulfeck 11y ago
That's a shame. I just transferred money from one bank to another here in the US and it was free. To my surprise it also happened instantly!
- tormeh 11y ago
  Is this a recent development?

ksrm 11y ago

This chart shows that the cost per transaction is around $8: https://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transaction https://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transaction I believe this is because the average block size is less than 1 MB: https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-block-size https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-block-size

aws_ls 11y ago

>much cheaper than a Western Union or SWIFT wire transfer But in practice, even when a user moves bitcoins between their own wallets its results in that transaction getting registered in the block chain. Which is very unnecessary, costly, inefficient and also may compromise the user's privacy. That's why IMHO some kind of solution whether it is lightning network[1] or sidechains is needed. [1] https://lightning.network/ https://lightning.network/