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How did bitcoin network transacted $90 billions just yesterday? By spending more energy than the entire world has ever produced?

Darmody 6y ago
The power usage is the same if you transfer $100 worth of BTC or $100 billion.
- frongpik 6y ago
  What happens if a few millions people send 5 bucks worth of bitcoin? A global power outage?
  - MereInterest 6y ago
    Depends on the transaction fees associated with those transfers. If those millions of people also post higher-than-average transaction fees, then the Bitcoin network prioritizes those payments, and cannot process any other transfers.
  - Darmody 6y ago
    They would have to wait a lot. Also a fee is almost $20 now. So they would make a bad and slow deal.
    - frongpik 6y ago
      That seems like a natural rate limiter that would prevent wasting any meaningful amount of energy on bitcoin.
      - imtringued 6y ago
        That transaction fee will be used to run more miners and thus increase the energy usage.
        frongpik 6y ago
        Higher fees means fewer transactions. Nobody's going to buy a $3 coffee with $300 fees just because it's bitcoin.
        Darmody 6y ago
        Nobody will pay a coffee with BTC, just like you don't pay for your stuff with a gold coins. Some say Litecoin will be used for that but I doubt it. Coins like Cardano or IOTA will be used for transactions. I'm not sure about Cardano but with IOTA you can transfer a fraction of a cent (or no value at all) without fees (that doesn't mean everything will be always fee-less).
sharpneli 6y ago
Bitcoin transaction value has nothing to do with it's energy consumption. So moving a cent or a million both cost the same.
MereInterest 6y ago
The cost is per transaction, not per amount transferred. A small transaction takes just as much space in the ledger as a large transaction. A fun thought experiment is to see just how limited the throughput of Bitcoin is. Suppose the Bitcoin enthusiasts were to get their wish and Bitcoin becomes the dominant "currency". If every person on the planet were to make a bitcoin transaction once if their lifetime, that alone would be too many transactions/second for the network to handle.
- frongpik 6y ago
  Sounds like a single bitcoin transaction is like transferring a few billion dollars at a time.
  - MereInterest 6y ago
    Pretty much. It is only useful in cases where you are making very large transactions. At that point, you have few enough actors that setting up a trusted network is far, far cheaper and more flexible. The trustless nature of Bitcoin is what makes it unscalable.
martinko 6y ago
Its not correct. The network spends this energy either ways, and it not only allows transactions to happen but it is integral to securing funds that are not moving. Dividing the energy consumption by number of transactions is therefore nonsense.

Darmody 6y ago

The power usage is the same if you transfer $100 worth of BTC or $100 billion.

frongpik 6y ago
What happens if a few millions people send 5 bucks worth of bitcoin? A global power outage?
- MereInterest 6y ago
  Depends on the transaction fees associated with those transfers. If those millions of people also post higher-than-average transaction fees, then the Bitcoin network prioritizes those payments, and cannot process any other transfers.
- Darmody 6y ago
  They would have to wait a lot. Also a fee is almost $20 now. So they would make a bad and slow deal.
  - frongpik 6y ago
    That seems like a natural rate limiter that would prevent wasting any meaningful amount of energy on bitcoin.
    - imtringued 6y ago
      That transaction fee will be used to run more miners and thus increase the energy usage.
      - frongpik 6y ago
        Higher fees means fewer transactions. Nobody's going to buy a $3 coffee with $300 fees just because it's bitcoin.
        Darmody 6y ago
        Nobody will pay a coffee with BTC, just like you don't pay for your stuff with a gold coins. Some say Litecoin will be used for that but I doubt it. Coins like Cardano or IOTA will be used for transactions. I'm not sure about Cardano but with IOTA you can transfer a fraction of a cent (or no value at all) without fees (that doesn't mean everything will be always fee-less).

sharpneli 6y ago

Bitcoin transaction value has nothing to do with it's energy consumption. So moving a cent or a million both cost the same.

MereInterest 6y ago

The cost is per transaction, not per amount transferred. A small transaction takes just as much space in the ledger as a large transaction. A fun thought experiment is to see just how limited the throughput of Bitcoin is. Suppose the Bitcoin enthusiasts were to get their wish and Bitcoin becomes the dominant "currency". If every person on the planet were to make a bitcoin transaction once if their lifetime, that alone would be too many transactions/second for the network to handle.

frongpik 6y ago
Sounds like a single bitcoin transaction is like transferring a few billion dollars at a time.
- MereInterest 6y ago
  Pretty much. It is only useful in cases where you are making very large transactions. At that point, you have few enough actors that setting up a trusted network is far, far cheaper and more flexible. The trustless nature of Bitcoin is what makes it unscalable.

martinko 6y ago

Its not correct. The network spends this energy either ways, and it not only allows transactions to happen but it is integral to securing funds that are not moving. Dividing the energy consumption by number of transactions is therefore nonsense.