2021-03-14 — I've been either copying and pasting this or paraphrasing this a
lot, so I'm just going to write it here so I can easily link it wherever I
want:
So, in its entire history, bitcoin has peaked at not even 500k transactions per
day[a]. Even if that was sustained (which it wasn't) then it would be at 140
million transactions per year. The federal reserve reports 15,584 million
transactions per year for 2019[b] (and that's only clearinghouse transactions,
the real number is likely far higher). So, bitcoin has <0.8% of the yearly
transactions that the global banking system has.
Now, bitcoin uses 77.78TWh[c] of energy yearly as a conservative, years-outdated
estimate. The global banking system uses an estimated 100TWh[d] of power yearly.
So, for /significantly/ under 1% of the transactions bitcoin uses 78% (more like
121%[e]) of the energy the banking system uses. Is that really efficient in the
slightest?
Also, from a pragmatic perspective if you were to use it as a real currency
instead of as stonks, bitcoin's transaction fees haven't gone below US$1.50 once
in the past 6 months[f], and hasn't gone below $2.50 in the past 3 months, with
an average fee of $25.00, it's just not practical for small transactions at all.
Compare that to 1.5--2.9% transaction fee for credit cards (which is paid by the
payee, not by the payor). You would need to pay ~$835 in order to pay $25.00
transaction fees on a 3% fee credit card.
Sources:
a: https://blockchain.com/charts/n-transactions
b: https://federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/fedach_yearlycomm.htm
c: https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/
d: https://bitsonline.com/bitcoin-vs-banks-uses-energy/
e: https://bbc.com/news/technology-56012952
f: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html
gemini://nytpu.com/files/on-bitcoins-energy.txt
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