[mgberlin]

That's a completely ridiculous answer and makes it clear you have no idea what you're talking about. 1) Gold has nothing to do with banking transactions, I've lived my whole life without ever touching a spec of gold. 2) Is about the energy consumption of bank branches. My bank doesn't even have branches. You're comparing apples to... tires or something.

[moralsupply]

So your bank has no offices, no people, no nothing to make it work?

Do you think that corporations don't require buildings, computing resources, transportation, etc. to exist?

As for the link about gold, read my original comment.

[jcranmer]

And you are willing and able to tot up those statistics for the people who make Bitcoin miners and other machines running nodes? And the buildings that house those, etc.? As long as you are not, it's still an improper comparison.