While I agree with the general sentiment that Bitcoin's energy consumption is a huge problem, I have a problem with these as arguments in isolation. Most would

While I agree with the general sentiment that Bitcoin's energy consumption is a huge problem, I have a problem with these as arguments in isolation. Most would not claim that a Visa transaction and a Bitcoin payment are close to equivalent (the article you linked even acknowledges this). Mining gold is a more interesting comparison, but even though I can go start mining Bitcoin right now, I can't go start mining gold. The article provides a more thoughtful exploration that gets into some of the nuance and makes a stronger case against mining. I mention this because someone reading your comment might be tempted to discard it outright because "those comparisons make no sense". To those people: read the article.