Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2°C: study from 2018

Re:Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2... by twiss on Sunday January 17, 2021 @05:09PM (#25815608)

> People use it to pay for games, buy things, sell things, donate and preserve the value of money earned in depreciating fiat.

This is where the argument about energy usage per transaction comes in, namely that Bitcoin is terribly, terribly inefficient at providing this value. From the OP:

> A single bitcoin transaction alone consumes 621 KWh, or half a million times more energy consumption than a credit card payment.

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Re:Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2... by CryptoGhost on Sunday January 17, 2021 @05:20PM (#25815741)

Comparing Bitcoin to a credit card payment isn't really a fair comparison. (Since if people really like the credit card model so much you can build credit card like things on top of the Bitcoin network) A more apt comparison would be to an international wire transfer which costs $15-$40 and takes a few days to complete.

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Re:Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2... by afavour on Sunday January 17, 2021 @05:41PM (#25815980)

... but doesn’t consume anywhere near the levels of power that Bitcoin does.

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Re:Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2... by CryptoGhost on Sunday January 17, 2021 @06:17PM (#25816280)

You would have to equalize for speed and transfer fees (because people consume a quite a bit of energy doing things faster and obtaining money) and then somehow come up with some way to calculate all the necessary energy for a wire transfer.

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