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How much energy does it take to run the US Mint and the US banking industry?

closeparen 9y ago
The more interesting question is how much per transaction.
deadmetheny 9y ago
Energy used to run the mint is incidental, so lower energy usage can be an attainable target if it's prioritized. The energy wasted from Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a feature and cannot be reduced without reducing Bitcoin's core functionality.
- lufte 9y ago
  But in Bitcoin's case it's the same, even the article mentions that "doing today’s calculations would “consume way more power than is generated on the entire planet” if it were done using the CPUs available when Bitcoin launched in 2009.". Energy used when mining Bitcoin could also be considered incidental, the goal is to calculate hashes.
  - imtringued 9y ago
    No it wouldn't because increasing energy efficiency of the bitcoin miners just means that the difficulty will rise until you're back to the same power consumption. The power consumption depends on the block reward and transaction fees. >Energy used when mining Bitcoin could also be considered incidental, the goal is to calculate hashes. The goal isn't to calculate hashes. That is the incidental part. The goal is to have a randomly chosen node create one block every X seconds.
aperrien 9y ago
I agree. These out of context questions really bother me, as I have no frame of reference to relate the quantity to to know if it's excessive or not. It just seems like a pure ply for attention. Here are some questions that would make for a better answer: How much energy do household TV's use? How much energy does the sports industry use? How much energy does it take to run our traffic system? How much energy does the gold mining industry use? How much energy does it take to run the US Stock Exchange? At least the article should put up a fair power comparison...
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  And for all the question there is the same, simple answer - which 'deadmetheny provided in a sibling comment. In all those examples, energy use is incidental. It's an upkeep you want to reduce, and there's money to be made reducing it. In Bitcoin, however, wasting energy is a feature, an integral part of the system.
bdcravens 9y ago
A single "token" (paper currency) can change hands thousands of times without a single electron expended, beyond the initial mining (physical minting)

The more interesting question is how much per transaction.

Energy used to run the mint is incidental, so lower energy usage can be an attainable target if it's prioritized. The energy wasted from Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a feature and cannot be reduced without reducing Bitcoin's core functionality.

lufte 9y ago
But in Bitcoin's case it's the same, even the article mentions that "doing today’s calculations would “consume way more power than is generated on the entire planet” if it were done using the CPUs available when Bitcoin launched in 2009.". Energy used when mining Bitcoin could also be considered incidental, the goal is to calculate hashes.
- imtringued 9y ago
  No it wouldn't because increasing energy efficiency of the bitcoin miners just means that the difficulty will rise until you're back to the same power consumption. The power consumption depends on the block reward and transaction fees. >Energy used when mining Bitcoin could also be considered incidental, the goal is to calculate hashes. The goal isn't to calculate hashes. That is the incidental part. The goal is to have a randomly chosen node create one block every X seconds.

aperrien 9y ago

I agree. These out of context questions really bother me, as I have no frame of reference to relate the quantity to to know if it's excessive or not. It just seems like a pure ply for attention. Here are some questions that would make for a better answer: How much energy do household TV's use? How much energy does the sports industry use? How much energy does it take to run our traffic system? How much energy does the gold mining industry use? How much energy does it take to run the US Stock Exchange? At least the article should put up a fair power comparison...

TeMPOraL 9y ago
And for all the question there is the same, simple answer - which 'deadmetheny provided in a sibling comment. In all those examples, energy use is incidental. It's an upkeep you want to reduce, and there's money to be made reducing it. In Bitcoin, however, wasting energy is a feature, an integral part of the system.

bdcravens 9y ago

A single "token" (paper currency) can change hands thousands of times without a single electron expended, beyond the initial mining (physical minting)