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A single bitcoin transaction uses ~ 600,000x as much energy as a single transaction on the Visa network.
by philjohn 6y ago
A single bitcoin transaction uses ~ 600,000x as much energy as a single transaction on the Visa network.
- kfrzcode 6y agoDo you have a source to cite here?
- shawnz 6y agoBitcoin's energy usage isn't determined by the transaction count but by its valuation. Raising the limit of transactions on the Bitcoin network wouldn't affect the energy consumption (but it would have other trade-offs).
- kevingadd 6y agoAren't there significant technological obstacles to raising the transaction limit, not to mention the fact that large miners have actively obstructed attempts to raise it in the past? My understanding is that we only finally got a block size increase with segwit in 2017 and that only happened after people worked around miner sabotage.
- shawnz 6y agoThere are no technological obstacles per se, but it will increase the rate which the size of the blockchain grows. It's true miners have obstructed attempts to make these kind of changes but they don't control the price of Bitcoin. If market demand for a higher transaction rate becomes great enough and they don't adapt, then another coin with bigger blocks will simply outcompete Bitcoin.
- another_sock 6y agoNot mentioned: the electricity and heating/cooling of visa office buildings, the car and plane travel for visa execs and employees, the law and military in place to maintain the environment for visa to operate, the lawyers involved in visas and their energy expenditures.