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If Bitcoin reaches a 2 trillion market cap, it will require less than 1% additional world energy output. Is less than 1% additional energy usage worth a 2 tril

If Bitcoin reaches a 2 trillion market cap, it will require less than 1% additional world energy output. Is less than 1% additional energy usage worth a 2 trillion cap? Well, I'm sure people can find a way to argue that it's not, but the point is that bitcoin isn't this enormous threat to energy usage that people try to argue it is.

kafkaesq 9y ago
If Bitcoin reaches a 2 trillion market cap, it will require less than 1% additional world energy output. The key question raised in the parent comment, which your own riposte artfully dodges, is once again - who stands to benefit from this N% increase in global energy usage?
- uncoder0 9y ago
  Not the poster but, I assume the beneficiaries are the users of the bitcoin network by the added security from the increases hash-rate/ energy consumption.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Those who hold Bitcoin. If you own 2% of all bitcoin in existence, and BTC reaches 2 trillion, you'll have $40B. As far as a justification goes, I think that if BTC reaches 2 trillion, it will have gone mainstream. Meaning either existing transactions should become easier, or people find it a good store of value. This isn't just theoretical. The marijuana industry faces immense hurdles dealing with the traditional financial system, because marijuana is technically still illegal at the federal level. This makes it a nightmare to do any of the normal banking operations we take for granted. Bitcoin sidesteps this problem while also letting you be legal: As long as you declare your taxes properly, Uncle Sam probably won't come knocking. That's just one example of an industry that benefits. There are many more.
danmaz74 9y ago
What did you base this 1% estimate on? And also, why 2 trillion, and not more - considering that the total value of the currencies used in the World, by a quick google, is around 80 trillion USD?
cjlars 9y ago
Humanity spends about $6 Trillion on energy annually, so 1% is no small figure [1]. Is a proper crypto-currency worth $60BN in maintenance costs per year? No idea, but it's likely to be more expensive than the alternative of traditional fiat currency. For reference, the federal reserve produces about $70BN in interest fees for taxpayers each year [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption [2] https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-insanely-profitable-federal-reserve https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-insanely-profitable-federa...
kllrnohj 9y ago
Market cap is a bad metric. A better one would be transactions. According to https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption bitcoin is on track to consume 19 TWh this year. That puts it at .1% of the global power consumption already NASDAQ does 10 million trades a day, roughly. So if bitcoin scales to just handle NASDAQ alone it would consume ~850 TWh/year, which is 3.5% of the total world's electricity generation (to say nothing of Visa's 150 million transactions a day) The reason bitcoin isn't currently an enormous threat is because it's basically barely used by comparison. 300,000 trades/day is a tiny number in the world of financial transactions.
- clarkmoody 9y ago
  But that is not how Bitcoin will scale. Rather, transactions will go off-chain. Edit: mining effort is dominated by difficulty anyway, not throughput.

kafkaesq 9y ago

If Bitcoin reaches a 2 trillion market cap, it will require less than 1% additional world energy output. The key question raised in the parent comment, which your own riposte artfully dodges, is once again - who stands to benefit from this N% increase in global energy usage?

uncoder0 9y ago
Not the poster but, I assume the beneficiaries are the users of the bitcoin network by the added security from the increases hash-rate/ energy consumption.
sillysaurus3 9y ago
Those who hold Bitcoin. If you own 2% of all bitcoin in existence, and BTC reaches 2 trillion, you'll have $40B. As far as a justification goes, I think that if BTC reaches 2 trillion, it will have gone mainstream. Meaning either existing transactions should become easier, or people find it a good store of value. This isn't just theoretical. The marijuana industry faces immense hurdles dealing with the traditional financial system, because marijuana is technically still illegal at the federal level. This makes it a nightmare to do any of the normal banking operations we take for granted. Bitcoin sidesteps this problem while also letting you be legal: As long as you declare your taxes properly, Uncle Sam probably won't come knocking. That's just one example of an industry that benefits. There are many more.

danmaz74 9y ago

What did you base this 1% estimate on? And also, why 2 trillion, and not more - considering that the total value of the currencies used in the World, by a quick google, is around 80 trillion USD?

cjlars 9y ago

Humanity spends about $6 Trillion on energy annually, so 1% is no small figure [1]. Is a proper crypto-currency worth $60BN in maintenance costs per year? No idea, but it's likely to be more expensive than the alternative of traditional fiat currency. For reference, the federal reserve produces about $70BN in interest fees for taxpayers each year [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption [2] https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-insanely-profitable-federal-reserve https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-insanely-profitable-federa...

kllrnohj 9y ago

Market cap is a bad metric. A better one would be transactions. According to https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption bitcoin is on track to consume 19 TWh this year. That puts it at .1% of the global power consumption already NASDAQ does 10 million trades a day, roughly. So if bitcoin scales to just handle NASDAQ alone it would consume ~850 TWh/year, which is 3.5% of the total world's electricity generation (to say nothing of Visa's 150 million transactions a day) The reason bitcoin isn't currently an enormous threat is because it's basically barely used by comparison. 300,000 trades/day is a tiny number in the world of financial transactions.

clarkmoody 9y ago
But that is not how Bitcoin will scale. Rather, transactions will go off-chain. Edit: mining effort is dominated by difficulty anyway, not throughput.