Bitcoin, electricity and banks.

I wanted to write this one for a while, but been putting it away for some reason. And know I’ve noticed everyone started to write in that direction. So I thought. Oh, bugger. Have to write on this topic before it's too late. Paper and ink can take all kinds of rubbish anyway.

There are lots of discussions lately, that Bitcoin wastes a lot of electricity. That its not useful, not ecologically good, wasting resources and so on.

Well, let's move onto the facts then, shall we? If the market cap of BTC would to grow *100, it would consume 2% of the world's electricity - that's a lot. I agree. By the way, lighting consumes 20% as of now. But we are all simple people. Who needs light anyways, right? I mean candles are more romantic.

It always seemed to me (and those aren't my words, kinds of ((partially)) nicked it), that the amount of energy consumed by humanity, goes hand in hand with its technological progress. I guess it's a rubbish argument though… with the amount of money collected by ICO’s, someone should have already invented a way to transfer BTC telepathically - shame on them, for not doing so yet.

Ok, let's move on forward (not too fast, as to not to get tired too quickly). I was taking a seat and thinking (that's a big thing already), that Bitcoin (for simplicity let's equal it out to blockchain altogether) is a protocol for money. Who else works with money? Yep, the banking sector. I'm curious how much money do these guys spend on electricity? On lighting, on computing, on the internet, on security? On other things? To be precise, the official numbers are 100 terawatts per year. And that a lot. In fact, I don't even know what those numbers mean (smiley face here) (depending on how you count, that's already almost a 1% of the planet's consumption) (oh, and just for the record - bitcoin doesn't have “unofficial” numbers).

But, ladies and gentlemen. This is not the end. Let us not forget the billions of USD invested by the banking sectors yearly in the fossil fuel industry, its production and all that other “bollocks”.

I think it will be meaningless to compare the “use and the good” of a decentralized and a centralized protocol for money right now… Ok, don't worry, I won't this time around. Do the maths for yourself… Just a small thought for the end: A long time ago I read somewhere that the CO2 footprint of a dog (during its lifetime) is more than of a car (on average). So boys and girls, think before those creatures pollute and take over our planet.

PS - no creatures and animals (bankers included) were hurt during the making of this article.

PPS - please love and respect dogs. It's not Bitcoin, a dog will always love you.