[paulmd]

for processing/validating transactions? couple hundred MWH. How much do you think the Nasdaq/NYSE mainframes really eat?

bitcoin numbers don't include the off-chain stuff either, lol.

Bitcoin energy is literally expended on a massive, inefficient mainframe that processes a couple hundred transactions a second. That's all - everything else is additional to that.

[cwkoss]

No, what is the cost of the system which enables the USG to reliably prevent the execution of erroneous trades?

Tens to hundreds of thousands of highly paid bureaucrats, accountants, risk managers, regulators, legislators, clerks, lawyers, law enforcement, judges, etc.

Obviously the purely digital systems consumes more compute, but I think you're discounting many of the true costs of the existing system.

[Kbelicius]

The system doesn't just enable the USG to reliably prevent the execution of erroneous trades.

If you think that tens to hundreds of thousands of highly paid bureaucrats, accountants, risk managers, regulators, legislators, clerks, lawyers, law enforcement, judges are there just to prevent erroneous trades...

It seems that you are discounting a vast amount of things that the system does besides preventing the execution of erroneous trade.

[cwkoss]

Yes, I am being superlative. However the traditional system would not function without all those parts - bitcoin effectively accomplishes many of these functions with compute alone, while traditional stock market uses compute for a much more limited scope. I simply want to point out this vast discrepancy in scope of comparison.