[yunesj]

> I'm curious how it compares to the entirety of a system like Mastercard

You should also include the cost of running all of the world's central banks.

US Federal Reserve budget is about $5B. Assuming 328.5k BTC mined per year, no tx fees, $20k BTC value, and mining at break even, mining energy costs are about $6.57B. It seems like they're on the same order of magnitude.

I am more concerned about the misaligned incentives for PoW, and to a lesser extent for PoS.