Quote from: Lauren Smith on March 03, 2021, 11:57:35 PM

How much research have you actually done? I was studying this very topic two days ago.
The global banking system uses 4x more electricity than bitcoin does and is nowhere near as safe.
Though I do agree they both use a lot of electricity.
The problem is how the electricity is made and not so much about how much is needed.

Bitcoin - 32.56 TWh Global baning system - 140TWh

https://medium.com/@zodhyatech/which-consumes-more-power-banks-or-bitcoins-8302750fe2bc

I ask you not to assume that I made this thread in order to bash BTC and it's ecosystem in some way. I just found those articles and wanted to hear what the community might think of them. And it turns out they actually have a lot of (informative) things to say, I'm glad that I did in fact started this topic.

Quote from: stompix on March 03, 2021, 02:36:52 PM

How many people in the world used bitcoin today? Half a million? How many people used banknotes? 5 billion?
How many people used BTC to buy food today? How many used cash?
I don't know why people are immediately getting triggered and rush to compare it to something else and their only defense is to point fingers: "Look, this is worse!"

This is actually a fair comparison. I guess that there will always be a group of people ready to grab pitchforks against BTC and they will basically attack it in any way possible, and the energy consumption is right there for the taking. If we do stop for a second to think the amount of energy that banks and such use (and have used!) to power up the economy, I'm sure they'll have a harder time trying to justify why they only make calculations for BTC only.

Quote from: Kakmakr on March 04, 2021, 06:41:51 AM

Ok, now how much does the same transaction cost to buy a Tesla with fiat currency?

Now, remember to take into account that the transaction in the Banking system are processed by giant mainframes/database servers that are supported by 24/7 Air conditioning and CCTV monitoring etc.. etc..

A transaction between different Banks doubles the need for this hardware and supporting infrastructure (modems/switches/backup devices etc.)

Ok, so reconciliation and auditing are also done.. so you have people working in a Office environment that are using computers and printers and air conditioning that are consuming electricity.. (They have to drive to work / Armored vehicles transport cash / Coins have to be minted / Paper notes has to be manufactured)

Do you get the "hidden" picture into what the alternative method of payment are costing in CO2 emissions and electricity cost? (I have not even started on the manufacturing of credit cards / debit cards / ATMs / Credit card machines etc.) Wink

This basically sumps up the point I brought before, well said. I wonder if there are similar tools that have been made to "estimate" the amount of processing power it takes to make global economy work? Or at least a particular bank to operate and such?