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"A single Bitcoin transaction now requires more than 2,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, or enough energy to power the average American household for 73 days"
by spenrose 5y ago
"A single Bitcoin transaction now requires more than 2,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, or enough energy to power the average American household for 73 days"
- pcdoodle 5y agoIt's shouldn't be thought of as energy per transaction. It's energy protecting all productivity that has been transferred into the network. Also there's so many places that use heat energy (drying grain for instance). We're going to be seeing a lot more interesting uses of the heat energy being expelled to secure the bitcoin blockchain.
- liamwestray 5y agoEnergy per transaction is the fundamental metric of efficiency in market systems. Literally every single product and service boils down an exchange of currency for some embodied (goods, services) or pure energy (electricity). Banking services are an exchange of currency for the energy embodied in protecting the accounting system and providing secure access to money. Crypto mining uses several orders of magnitude more energy per serviced individual than the entirety of the global banking system combined.