Alright, well, here's some math. The Bitcoin network hashrate is currently at ~3,800,000,000 GH/s. The most efficient miners are at ~0.1W/GH. So the Bitcoin

Alright, well, here's some math. The Bitcoin network hashrate is currently at ~3,800,000,000 GH/s. The most efficient miners are at ~0.1W/GH. So the Bitcoin network, at its most efficient, would be using 380,000,000 Watts right now. I'm not sure what to compare that against. I looked up and found this article: https://www9.nationalgridus.com/non_html/shared_energyeff_office.pdf https://www9.nationalgridus.com/non_html/shared_energyeff_of... That article says that office buildings use ~1.53 Watts per square foot to cool the building (that's an average 1.53 throughout the year). So the power used to secure the Bitcoin network is equal to cooling ~248 million square feet of office space. Sounds like a lot, but pulling up a random office building, 55 Water Street, and I see it's 3.5 million square feet. The U.S. as a whole uses 446,689,497,716 Watts on average. So Bitcoin is using 0.085% of the total U.S. power consumption. Or, 0.015% of world power consumption. I have no idea if what we are currently spending on the Bitcoin network, in terms of natural resources, is more or less efficient than our current banking system. But those are the numbers. Personally, I don't think any of its relevant. Reducing energy consumption should not be the primary focus of our species. We should focus on increasing sustainable energy _production_. Energy production is a core attribute of our economy and our civilization. It may even be the _most_ important thing to us, as a growing species. Obviously reducing waste when we can is good, but I'd rather expend the majority of our resources building out solar installations rather than quibbling about whether Bitcoin is power efficient or not.