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Less than bitcoin, while providing actual value? According to Netflix's 2020 ESG report [1], their hardware infrastructure used just under 95 GWh in 2020 (not
by lorenzhs 5y ago
Less than bitcoin, while providing actual value? According to Netflix's 2020 ESG report [1], their hardware infrastructure used just under 95 GWh in 2020 (not including data transmission or your TV). All of which was from renewable sources, btw. Including transmission and the end-user's viewing devices, watching Netflix is estimated to use 77W of power [2], for a total estimate of around 1.2 TWh per year. Bitcoin is estimated at 140 TWh per year [3], or 1500 times Netflix's data centre power usage, or a 120 times the likely total energy consumption of watching Netflix.
Going further, all data centres in the world use an estimated 200 TWh per year, and data transmission networks are estimated at 250 TWh per year [4], for a total of 3.2 times Bitcoin's energy use. Maybe it's just me, but the value provided by the internet is more than 3.2 times higher than that of Bitcoin.
[1] https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_downloads/2021/03/2020-SASB-Report_FINAL.pdf https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_downloads/2021/03/...
[2] https://www.iea.org/commentaries/the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-fact-checking-the-headlines https://www.iea.org/commentaries/the-carbon-footprint-of-str...
[3] https://cbeci.org/ https://cbeci.org/
[4] https://www.iea.org/reports/data-centres-and-data-transmission-networks https://www.iea.org/reports/data-centres-and-data-transmissi...
- 1337biz 5y ago> Less than bitcoin, while providing actual value? Value is subjective. What you call actual value has zero value to others.
- IMTDb 5y agoThe difference is that the energy used by Netflix to stream content is a mean to an end. Find a way to reduce the energy cost and you can provide the same value for less cost. It is possible to both increase the value provided by Netflix and decrease the energy consumed by it. In fact it's even desirable. The energy consumed by Bitcoin is the entire value. Find a way to reduce the energy cost and everyone will mine more and consume more. If they don't the trust in the network decreases and the value of Bitcoin decreases. It is not possible to get a popular situation where bitcoin is valuable and does not consume a lot of energy. The valu of Bitcoin is strictly tied to the amount of electricity people are willing to waste for it.
- 127 5y agoIf Youtube is 10% of internet traffic and internet traffic is 10% of world energy use, the number is significantly more than the number you posted. https://thefactsource.com/how-much-electricity-does-youtube-use/ https://thefactsource.com/how-much-electricity-does-youtube-... (240TWh)
- lorenzhs 5y agoYes, but the link I posted goes into significant detail why numbers as high as those in your link can't possibly be accurate.