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A comment on Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. Parent comment

Re:Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index by rspeele on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @01:43PM (#26093112)
This is like saying my car's engine uses oil as lubricant, not as fuel. It's true, but I still have to change the oil every 5,000 miles. So I can still calculate the cost of oil changes into each mile.

Since transacting Bitcoin securely is the utility of the network, just as moving around is the utility of a car, it seems quite fair to judge the energy consumption of the network in terms of energy expended per transaction secured.

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Re:Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index by paulsutter on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @03:31PM (#26094329)
It's quite different: the energy represents the market cost of securing the network. The value of the network supports that cost otherwise nobody would be performing mining.

If this were taxpayer supported I could understand the objection, but the people buying the energy to run the system are doing so as a commercial activity to make a profit. How is this commercial use of energy inherently worse than other commercial activities?

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