[drexlspivey]

What most people that keep repeating the energy consumption meme fail to realize is that the amount of electricity spent to secure the network is highly correlated with the block reward. Currently the reward is 12.5 BTC/10mins or close to $100k and it will keep getting halved every 4 years. Right now the fast rate of adoption drives the price up but in the long run the price will hit a plateau and the energy consumption will start to decline.

[antris]

I guess the point is, in the traditional money system we could create that $100k with practically zero energy.

[dr_win]

No, mining gold is not cheap. And if by "traditional money system" you mean fiat then I must argue that it is not comparable. Comparing bitcoin to fiat is like comparing gold to paper.