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> Current Bitcoin usage is literally a rounding error of global energy usage (0.1%) and if wildly successful would still be < 1% of energy usage. https://www.ly

> Current Bitcoin usage is literally a rounding error of global energy usage (0.1%) and if wildly successful would still be < 1% of energy usage. https://www.lynalden.com/bitcoin-energy/ https://www.lynalden.com/bitcoin-energy/ That author doesn't seem to actually understand the scale of financial transactions in the world. Right now, there are about 300,000 Bitcoin transactions per day. The author defines Bitcoin being "wildly successful" as a 20x increase. Right now there are over 1 billion credit card transactions per day alone right now. If Bitcoin grew by 20x it still would be a drop in the bucket of global transactions but using up a relatively huge percentage of the world's energy compared to it's share of financial transactions. The author also justifies bitcoins energy usage by saying it's similar to Google's. But Google serves billions of people everyday and Bitcoin is used by a very small subset of people.

douglaswlance 4y ago
That is assuming it scales linearly, which is not necessarily true. It would only be true if the value of BTC went up such that more miners were incentivized to join the system. In BTC, there isn't a 1:1 direct correlation between energy spent and transactions processed.
kkielhofner 4y ago
The average US adult does 2.3 financial transactions per day. The all time high number of bitcoin network transactions in a 24h period is a bit less than 500k. The busiest day for Bitcoin usage worldwide is roughly equivalent to the population of Modesto, CA. Blockchain occupies so much of the conversation and generates such incredible amounts of hype very few people truly understand just how insignificant it is in terms of not only the global financial system but also the internet. As you say billions of users and billions of transactions. It's almost as though people forget these networks are completely public and open - adoption numbers for any chain are a blockchain explorer away.
- thinkmassive 4y ago
  > The all time high number of bitcoin network transactions in a 24h period is a bit less than 500k …on chain aka “layer 1”
  - kkielhofner 4y ago
    The L2s and high transaction rate chains don't look much better.
- kobieyc 4y ago
  Don't forget about the Lightning Network
  - kkielhofner 4y ago
    It's very difficult to determine transactions, addresses, etc on LN. I've searched far and wide I can't come up with accurate usage. If you have suggestions for where to look I'd love to check it out!
gregwebs 4y ago
She does write about this topic as well, it is worth reading the full article. Bitcoin can never be used directly for all the world's financial transactions since it is not capable of that throughput. But those transactions can use things like the Lightning Network that is built on top of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is useful as a final settlement layer, more like how banks use Fedwire today.
cwkoss 4y ago
Energy usage is only loosely correlated with transaction volume, most of the energy goes towards securing the network.

douglaswlance 4y ago

That is assuming it scales linearly, which is not necessarily true. It would only be true if the value of BTC went up such that more miners were incentivized to join the system. In BTC, there isn't a 1:1 direct correlation between energy spent and transactions processed.

kkielhofner 4y ago

The average US adult does 2.3 financial transactions per day. The all time high number of bitcoin network transactions in a 24h period is a bit less than 500k. The busiest day for Bitcoin usage worldwide is roughly equivalent to the population of Modesto, CA. Blockchain occupies so much of the conversation and generates such incredible amounts of hype very few people truly understand just how insignificant it is in terms of not only the global financial system but also the internet. As you say billions of users and billions of transactions. It's almost as though people forget these networks are completely public and open - adoption numbers for any chain are a blockchain explorer away.

thinkmassive 4y ago
> The all time high number of bitcoin network transactions in a 24h period is a bit less than 500k …on chain aka “layer 1”
- kkielhofner 4y ago
  The L2s and high transaction rate chains don't look much better.
kobieyc 4y ago
Don't forget about the Lightning Network
- kkielhofner 4y ago
  It's very difficult to determine transactions, addresses, etc on LN. I've searched far and wide I can't come up with accurate usage. If you have suggestions for where to look I'd love to check it out!

gregwebs 4y ago

She does write about this topic as well, it is worth reading the full article. Bitcoin can never be used directly for all the world's financial transactions since it is not capable of that throughput. But those transactions can use things like the Lightning Network that is built on top of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is useful as a final settlement layer, more like how banks use Fedwire today.

cwkoss 4y ago

Energy usage is only loosely correlated with transaction volume, most of the energy goes towards securing the network.