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by thamer 1943 days ago
It really is terrible, and many enthusiasts don't seem to understand enough about Bitcoin to even realize it. For so many it's just a way to make a quick buck when Elon tweets about it.

To put in in numbers, according to the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index[1] (they link to other research that arrive at similar conclusions, if not worse): the total footprint is almost 37 million tons of CO2, a single transaction accounting for over 300 kg. A single transaction requires the same amount of energy as an average household over 22 days, or emits the same amount of CO2 as a 2020 Civic driving 1,000 miles.

The comparison with the visa network is just as wild: a single bitcoin transaction takes more energy than 432,000 visa transactions.

At this point it's highly irresponsible to continue using and supporting Bitcoin.

[1] https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
2 comments
varajelle 1943 days ago
Take the cost of your house, divide by the amount of time you enter your house through the door. You get the price each time you get into your house. For a 300k$ house and entering the house twice a day for 20 years that's about 20$ each time you enter your house.

Does not make sense? Of course not because dividing the amount of electricity used to mine a block by the amount of transactions also doesn't make sense.

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vkou 1943 days ago
No, what you're saying makes no sense for a different reason. When you buy a house, you don't take $300,000 and set it on fire.

If you, after 20 years, sell that house for $600,000, does that mean that you were paid $20, each time you entered your house?

A bitcoin transaction, on the other hand, is quite literally a colossal waste of electricity, to enable an incredibly small amount of value (Settling one transaction.)

You may be able to argue that it also enables another kind of value (A bunch of bitcoin hoarders getting rich), but that's not value that's of relevance to literally anyone else in the world.

Look, you can make an argument that traditional billionaires help the world by much handwaving of invisible hands efficiently allocating resources in open markets.

What second order forms of value for the world does the existence of bitcoin speculators create?

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oraphalous 1943 days ago
"and many enthusiasts don't seem to understand enough about Bitcoin to even realize it."

Yeah because - smart people in the bitcoin space NEVER spent any time thinking about energy consumption.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T0OUIW89II

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