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Ignore the alarmists: Bitcoin's energy consumption is justified

• pbohun 4y ago
  The author is an economist and not a computer scientist, and it shows. Bitcoin only makes 3 transactions per second and consumes around 12 GW continuously. One could setup an "old school" system of recording transactions to a database on a raspberry pi and easily process 100x as many transactions while consuming only 3 Watts. I don't even feel like debunking the other 4 statements because the first is so egregious.
  • ephbit 4y ago
    > Bitcoin only makes 3 transactions per second and consumes around 12 GW continuously. Yes. 1) Wait for Powell and Lagarde to reopen the tap as a futile attempt at sliding past recession, should only take a couple of months 2) Stand by as confidence in USD/EUR further erodes 3) Wait 10 years 4) Reevaluate whether "Bitcoin must be utterly useless, because 3 tps"
• jimsmart 4y ago
  > The energy estimates are just that, estimates. The [sic] rely on estimates of the electricity price paid by bitcoin miners and estimates of the model of equipment used, both of which are impossible to know. The argument has never been about the cost of the energy. That's actually completely immaterial to estimating the energy usage. Sure, I realise that energy cost is a factor, for both understanding the economics and for the author to develop his later points. But the energy estimates don't rely on the price of the energy — this is just poor logic, and/or poor writing.