The computer power behind the financial system is literally insane. But if everything changed to Bitcoin, we would use more energy.
What COULD be beneficial would be one of the other coins out there. Doesn’t have to be Bitcoin.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
I mean, yeah, it’s bad. We shouldn’t be ignoring how bad bitcoin is for the environment.
But are you really gonna tell me that all the computers and CPU time that Wall Street uses for trading somehow takes less?
It doesn’t matter what financial system you use, you’re still burning energy to make it work.
themurphy@lemmy.world 9 months ago
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
I guess my point had less to do with cryptocurrency and more to do with currency in general. It’s not a defense of bitcoin as much as it’s a critique of how much energy the system in general uses, either way.
However, it’s also one that’s not easily solved. Even with paper/coin money, you’re still using finite resources to produce the bank-notes.
iAmTheTot@kbin.social 9 months ago
It was a bad point then, because bitcoin uses more.
SaltySalamander@kbin.social 9 months ago
Citation needed.
zeppo@lemmy.world 9 months ago
As far as transactions, yes, something like Visa takes way less than Bitcoin. For HFT compared to crypto, who knows, but one thing they’re not doing is something intentionally wasteful like proof of work.
Mubelotix@jlai.lu 9 months ago
You think having thousands of bankers use their car twice a day is better? It’s so much worse
zeppo@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Okay, the bankers could work remotely. What then? Anyway, yeah, it’s still set up in a dramatically inefficient way because proof of work is inherently wasteful. It may have been state of the art 15 years ago but it sure isn’t now.
Mubelotix@jlai.lu 9 months ago
They could but they won’t. Bitcoin pays 0.05 cents per kWh, that’s close to 0, the only energy that goes into mining is energy that wouldn’t have gone anywhere else. Energy is hard to store and sometimes there just isn’t enough demand. That’s what goes into Bitcoin, and there is no ecological problem with that