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All these articles and yet none of them have articulated the carbon cost of the current financial system.
by randompwd 6y ago
All these articles and yet none of them have articulated the carbon cost of the current financial system.
- kerng 6y agoI argued the same earlier today and got downvoted by HN. I agree with you.
- BlueTemplar 6y agoWhat exactly do you mean about "articulated" ? They certainly mentioned it...
- randompwd 6y agothe article says: > Some bitcoin proponents note, meanwhile, that the existing financial system with its millions of employees and computers in air-conditioned offices uses large amounts of energy too. There's 0 details or comparisons in there.
- emteycz 6y agoI don't see any mention of the hundreds of dollars of fees and car and airplane trips to banks and governmental offices to sign dozens of papers that are necessary to transfer between un-allied/distant countries - the exact thing where Bitcoin absolutely shines and is used for that a lot. People say how there's always an alternative without thinking about what that alternative is exactly.
- BlueTemplar 6y agoYes, that's a very good point ! On first order of approximation you can take how much a miner gains on average per transaction (mining+fees), which is probably much easier to calculate than the real cost of the other side (I guess one could check how much Western Union takes ?) Sometimes people compare it with Visa/Mastercard costs, but it's unfair when you're talking about unallied countries, as those benefit from the discount coming from operating at scale in allied countries, and the bitcoin network cannot be consistently shut down without shutting down the Internet itself !
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]