11 ms·

Bitcoin uses as much electricity as a small sized country with industry and everything, all the banks in the world use way less energy.

by saati 8y ago

fastball 8y ago
You're joking, right? All the banks in the world expend far, far more energy than any small country, probably any medium country as well. And banking is only one of the many things that could be changed by blockchain tech.
- saati 8y ago
  Do you have any proof for that?
  - fastball 8y ago
    Math? There are thousands upon thousands of banks around the world. Each one of these banks is going to have at least one branch. Some have tens of branches. Some have hundreds. A few might have thousands. Each of these branches is going to have at least a handful of employees. Some will have more like 10-50. Then there are the corporate structures to the banks, entirely outside of retail locations. Thousands upon thousands of corporate employees for the big banks, hundreds as you go down. The result is hundreds of thousands of retail bank branches (if not millions), and definitely millions of bank employees. That is just relevant to the people and building upkeep (air condition, lighting, etc) for retail locations. Then you have the fact that big banks will have their own datacenters. Any bank with online banking will need to be consuming a lot of electricity to host those services. Any bank with telephone banking needs to consume energy in order to keep those phone lines available. A lot of these banks will then either be integrating with each other or integrating with a 3rd party for more modern settlement. Either way, this process consumes electricity. Then there is the amount of paper / other supplies that these countless banks are consuming. It's a lot. All of these things have an associated energy cost. --- But you think there is the slightest chance that bitcoin/ethereum/etc are consuming an equivalent amount of energy and resources? Really? Throw in the fact that a lot of mining operations are utilizing waste energy and you have yourself a consumption comparison that is laughable considering how tiny blockchain is compared to banking.

Bitcoin uses as much electricity as a small sized country with industry and everything, all the banks in the world use way less energy.

by saati 8y ago

Bitcoin uses as much electricity as a small sized country with industry and everything, all the banks in the world use way less energy.

fastball 8y ago

You're joking, right? All the banks in the world expend far, far more energy than any small country, probably any medium country as well. And banking is only one of the many things that could be changed by blockchain tech.

saati 8y ago
Do you have any proof for that?
- fastball 8y ago
  Math? There are thousands upon thousands of banks around the world. Each one of these banks is going to have at least one branch. Some have tens of branches. Some have hundreds. A few might have thousands. Each of these branches is going to have at least a handful of employees. Some will have more like 10-50. Then there are the corporate structures to the banks, entirely outside of retail locations. Thousands upon thousands of corporate employees for the big banks, hundreds as you go down. The result is hundreds of thousands of retail bank branches (if not millions), and definitely millions of bank employees. That is just relevant to the people and building upkeep (air condition, lighting, etc) for retail locations. Then you have the fact that big banks will have their own datacenters. Any bank with online banking will need to be consuming a lot of electricity to host those services. Any bank with telephone banking needs to consume energy in order to keep those phone lines available. A lot of these banks will then either be integrating with each other or integrating with a 3rd party for more modern settlement. Either way, this process consumes electricity. Then there is the amount of paper / other supplies that these countless banks are consuming. It's a lot. All of these things have an associated energy cost. --- But you think there is the slightest chance that bitcoin/ethereum/etc are consuming an equivalent amount of energy and resources? Really? Throw in the fact that a lot of mining operations are utilizing waste energy and you have yourself a consumption comparison that is laughable considering how tiny blockchain is compared to banking.