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Youtube alone uses 2x’s the amount of energy of the Bitcoin network. Ban Youtube?

by chrischattin 5y ago

leesalminen 5y ago
I mean, all YouTube does is generate money for the ad-tech industry. I think it should be banned before PoW cryptos.
- scrollaway 5y ago
  No that isn't all YouTube does thank you very much. It's one of the greatest treasure troves of educational video content. It has helped my life, career, and those of my friends. It has probably contributed far more to humanity's advance, in efficiency alone, than most other websites of its kind. That you only use it to watch videos that bring zero gain to your life is a You problem.
simonw 5y ago
No it doesn't.
- chrischattin 5y ago
  Yeah, it does. I posted sources in a reply to another comment. Or, you can look it up yourself.
  - simonw 5y ago
    You quoted https://thefactsource.com/how-much-electricity-does-youtube-use/ https://thefactsource.com/how-much-electricity-does-youtube-... which says: "the internet uses 10% of the total electricity consumption worldwide. How much of that is consumed by Youtube? After Netflix and embedded videos, Youtube is the third biggest global internet bandwidth eater. About 11.4% of global internet traffic is consumed by Youtube" That figure assumes that the electricity usage of the internet is exactly related to the amount of bandwidth - so if YouTube uses 11.4% of the internet's total bandwidth, that means that YouTube uses 11.4% of the internet's total electricity consumption. That is a highly dubious assumption.
hunter2_ 5y ago
I think the difference is that a means of building green buildings and green cryptocurrencies have been proven viable. Once the same happens for the category of product YouTube falls into (which goes beyond just video distribution), the non-green way can be eliminated.
2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
A quick google seems to turn up that this claim is from thefactsource.com based on the internet uses 10% of global power. And YouTube is 11% of internet traffic. So 1% of global power. VS An estimate of Bitcoin power consumption by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. I know which one I’m more prepared to believe. Even if this were true. I go on YouTube and can learn things: recipes, FreeCad tutorials, coffee nerdery, harmonica lessons. Bitcoin literally does nothing.
- Spooky23 5y ago
  Remember the infrastructure is one part of the equation. The billions of devices consuming YouTube are running in electricity as well. The virtue of energy use argument is just dumb.
  - kickopotomus 5y ago
    But again, read what the person you are responding to wrote. YouTube provides something of value to millions. PoW is not required for cryptocurrency to function. PoW provides no value. It wastes time and energy for the sake of wasting processor cycles.
    - swensel 5y ago
      Come on... PoW provides no value? So the almost $1 trillion in Bitcoin is just, nothing? Not worth anything? I think the people invested would beg to differ.
      - kickopotomus 5y ago
        There is no need for Bitcoin to use PoW. Bitcoin can continue to exist using a different algorithm to establish distributed trust. But since you brought up Bitcoin, yes, I would say that it provides little value to society in it's current state. It operates primarily as a speculative investment rather than a true currency.
lovecg 5y ago
Google is claiming to be Carbon neutral though, so not a good comparison. https://sustainability.google/commitments/ https://sustainability.google/commitments/
generj 5y ago
YouTube also entertains hundreds of millions of people, whereas crypto benefits the average person…how exactly? By enabling ransom ware attacks? Creating GPU shortages?
- jude- 5y ago
  YouTube also promotes conspiracy theories, racism, anti-intellectualism, authoritarianism, anti-vaxxing, and so on. These things pretty severe negative externalities, to put it mildly. So let's not pretend that YouTube's existence is a net-positive for humanity; that remains to be seen.
schmorptron 5y ago
No? Youtube's use of compute power serves a purpose that is not quite literally wasting energy for the sake of it.

Youtube alone uses 2x’s the amount of energy of the Bitcoin network. Ban Youtube?

leesalminen 5y ago

I mean, all YouTube does is generate money for the ad-tech industry. I think it should be banned before PoW cryptos.

scrollaway 5y ago
No that isn't all YouTube does thank you very much. It's one of the greatest treasure troves of educational video content. It has helped my life, career, and those of my friends. It has probably contributed far more to humanity's advance, in efficiency alone, than most other websites of its kind. That you only use it to watch videos that bring zero gain to your life is a You problem.

simonw 5y ago

No it doesn't.

chrischattin 5y ago
Yeah, it does. I posted sources in a reply to another comment. Or, you can look it up yourself.
- simonw 5y ago
  You quoted https://thefactsource.com/how-much-electricity-does-youtube-use/ https://thefactsource.com/how-much-electricity-does-youtube-... which says: "the internet uses 10% of the total electricity consumption worldwide. How much of that is consumed by Youtube? After Netflix and embedded videos, Youtube is the third biggest global internet bandwidth eater. About 11.4% of global internet traffic is consumed by Youtube" That figure assumes that the electricity usage of the internet is exactly related to the amount of bandwidth - so if YouTube uses 11.4% of the internet's total bandwidth, that means that YouTube uses 11.4% of the internet's total electricity consumption. That is a highly dubious assumption.

hunter2_ 5y ago

I think the difference is that a means of building green buildings and green cryptocurrencies have been proven viable. Once the same happens for the category of product YouTube falls into (which goes beyond just video distribution), the non-green way can be eliminated.

2muchcoffeeman 5y ago

A quick google seems to turn up that this claim is from thefactsource.com based on the internet uses 10% of global power. And YouTube is 11% of internet traffic. So 1% of global power. VS An estimate of Bitcoin power consumption by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. I know which one I’m more prepared to believe. Even if this were true. I go on YouTube and can learn things: recipes, FreeCad tutorials, coffee nerdery, harmonica lessons. Bitcoin literally does nothing.

Spooky23 5y ago
Remember the infrastructure is one part of the equation. The billions of devices consuming YouTube are running in electricity as well. The virtue of energy use argument is just dumb.
- kickopotomus 5y ago
  But again, read what the person you are responding to wrote. YouTube provides something of value to millions. PoW is not required for cryptocurrency to function. PoW provides no value. It wastes time and energy for the sake of wasting processor cycles.
  - swensel 5y ago
    Come on... PoW provides no value? So the almost $1 trillion in Bitcoin is just, nothing? Not worth anything? I think the people invested would beg to differ.
    - kickopotomus 5y ago
      There is no need for Bitcoin to use PoW. Bitcoin can continue to exist using a different algorithm to establish distributed trust. But since you brought up Bitcoin, yes, I would say that it provides little value to society in it's current state. It operates primarily as a speculative investment rather than a true currency.

lovecg 5y ago

Google is claiming to be Carbon neutral though, so not a good comparison. https://sustainability.google/commitments/ https://sustainability.google/commitments/

generj 5y ago

YouTube also entertains hundreds of millions of people, whereas crypto benefits the average person…how exactly? By enabling ransom ware attacks? Creating GPU shortages?

jude- 5y ago
YouTube also promotes conspiracy theories, racism, anti-intellectualism, authoritarianism, anti-vaxxing, and so on. These things pretty severe negative externalities, to put it mildly. So let's not pretend that YouTube's existence is a net-positive for humanity; that remains to be seen.

schmorptron 5y ago

No? Youtube's use of compute power serves a purpose that is not quite literally wasting energy for the sake of it.