Martin SeegerApr 17, 2024

If you do 12 Bitcoin transactions per year, you use a higher amount of energy than we use for a complete family (including: heating, warm water, electricity, car charging) in the same year. We do all via electricity.

From: @tkinias
https://historians.social/@tkinias/112283441665687815

Thanasis Kinias (@[email protected])

I just read that a single Bitcoin transaction requires upwards of 1,000 kW-hr of electricity. That’s like running a small air conditioner 24/7 for a month and a half. Edit: This got way more attention than I expected from an offhand remark; I guess it hit a nerve on here! But I’m going to have to mute this, as it’s taken over my notifications...

Mastodon
Show threadBerndApr 17, 2024
@masek Dammit, this is crazy. At first look I thought this must be grossly exaggerated, but I checked numbers at statista.com: 140 TWh per year for bitcoin, and 250,000 transactions per day, averages out to 1500 kWh per transaction. This is total insanity. I had no idea it was this badly out of control.
Show thread🇺🇦 Anna FilinaApr 17, 2024
@hopfgeist @masek Do they combine mining and transactions into the same number though, or do they state that number explicitly for transactions?
Show threadBerndApr 17, 2024

@afilina @masek I referred to this: https://www.statista.com/statistics/881472/worldwide-bitcoin-energy-consumption/

It is not explicit, but I'm quite sure that this is the total, including mining.

Bitcoin energy consumption worldwide 2017-2024 | Statista

Bitcoin's annualized footprint in electricity consumption reached an all-time high in early 2022, then believed to be higher than the power consumption of Finland.

Statista
Show threadBerndApr 17, 2024
@afilina @masek To elaborate, it is not that any single #transaction directly uses that much #energy, but that, by participating in the "System #Bitcoin", you are responsible for the corresponding amount of energy.
Show thread🇺🇦 Anna Filina
@hopfgeist @masek That's a very fair point. In the end, the transactions are the only thing of any value in that entire system, and this is the amount of energy used to create that value. It's criminally inefficient.
Apr 17, 2024 at 4:51pmWeb
Show threadJBApr 18, 2024
@afilina @hopfgeist @masek Not only transactions but also persistant storage of value (print more money lagarde) and stability is of value when it comes to a financial system