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by bruce511 256 days ago
The problem with the "Olympic Pool" scale of measures is that it has no real meaning to most people.

Yes the Netherlands is "mid table" in a list of countries, but absent a good knowledge of statistics, population distribution, and geographic energy consumption, especially with relation to the Netherlands, it's a meaningless measure.

Since I had none of the above, I went to look it up. And frankly I have no idea if you actually compared Bitcoin to the Netherlands (in terms of energy consumption) or just randomly picked a country.

Let me be general. I have no idea about the Netherlands. I have no idea if you know anything about the Netherlands. That's the root of my concern with your comparison. It "sounds" like a useful comparison- but is it?

Now, had you said that Bitcoin consumes about 0.5% of global energy, and that there are just under 200 countries (meaning on average 0.5% each) then that's a measure I can absorb.

I might then point out that the US consumes 25% of the world energy supply, despite having 5% of global population, so the 0.5% of bitcoin consumption is really not moving the needle.

1 comments

Once again you seem to have taken offence at a pure comparison, absent any value judgement.

That’s on you.