4 ms·
The energy consumption of BTC is minuscule when compared to total electric consumption and its physical/economic effect on power networks is similarly minuscule
by effie 6y ago
The energy consumption of BTC is minuscule when compared to total electric consumption and its physical/economic effect on power networks is similarly minuscule. Yes, it consumes and contributes to CO2. So do other electric energy consumers, like big companies like Amazon, Google. So do, orders of magnitude more than BTC, consumers of fossil fuels. BTC is just an easy inconsequential scapegoat.
- tsimionescu 6y agoBTC consumes more electricity than many individual countries in the world. It is something like 0.1% of the electrical energy consumption of the entire world. That is not insignificant, it is a huge chunk that could be stopped with virtually 0 impact on the world economy (unlike all your other examples).
- effie 6y ago0.1% percent is pretty insignificant, it is 1/1000 of the world electric energy production, and that contributes only around 30% to total world C02 production. Blaming and cancelling insignificant activities leads nowhere. And it's absurd, considering the main CO2 contributors are elsewhere - it is the transport and power plants which need this attention. If we are talking about affecting CO2 production via electric energy policies, more just way (and more effective way) to introduce "CO2 sanctions" on various activities is to factor the damage in the energy price. That way everybody feels the pain proportionally, not just few random scapegoats like BTC. I agree that price does not need to be the same for everyone. Maybe BTC activities should pay much more for electric energy than a normal (non-BTC oriented) household does.