28d • General discussion
"Bitcoin wastes too much energy." The banks would like a word.
You've heard it a hundred times.
Usually from someone typing on a laptop plugged into a coal-powered grid.
"But bitcoin uses sooooo much electricity bro."
Let's look at the actual numbers.
The headline everyone repeats: "THE ENERGY OF A SMALL COUNTRY!!!"
Here's the facts: Bitcoin uses roughly 150 terawatt-hours of electricity per year (TWh, the standard unit for measuring national-scale energy consumption). This is equivalent to the annual electricity usage of Poland, Egypt or Pakistan.
Sounds damning.
Feels damning.
Case closed, right?
Well there's a tiny question you should always ask when people parrot common talking points like this.
Here's the question: "Relative to what?"
The comparison that changes the conversation:
The traditional banking system (the one quietly running in the background of your life) uses between 260 and 700 TWh per year, depending on how you count it.
That includes:
- Bank branches: lights, AC, servers, 24/7
- Every ATM on the planet, running all day, every day
- Card network data centers (Visa, Mastercard, the whole stack)
- Physical cash: printing, minting, armored trucks driving it around
- Corporate headquarters the size of small cities
- Gold vaulting, transport, and insurance infrastructure
And that's just keeping the current system running. It doesn't include the energy cost of bailouts, fraud, or the wars fought to protect the dollar's dominance as the world's reserve currency.
Bitcoin's energy is the security. That's the whole point.
That energy is what makes the ledger resistant to counterfeiting. It's what keeps the record honest without trusting a single institution to do it. It's the moat around the castle. Without it, there's no castle.
Asking "why does Bitcoin use energy?" is like asking "why does a vault have walls?"
But relative to the banking systems that people already are frustrated with...it's extremely efficient.
We should also remember that over a billion people globally are unbanked with no access to safe savings or basic lending services. Bitcoin is bringing open finance to everyone at a way more energy efficient cost.
And here's where it gets interesting:
Banking's energy use is hidden, spread across millions of buildings, buried in operational budgets no one audits. Bitcoin's energy use is visible, measurable to the watt, in real time, by anyone.
And over 50% of Bitcoin mining now runs on renewable or surplus energy, often in places where that power would otherwise go to waste (flared natural gas at oil wells, remote hydroelectric dams, excess solar that the grid can't absorb).
You can checkout our classroom free PDF section to see an infographic with the details.
Bitcoin miners are some of the only buyers willing to set up where energy is cheapest, which means they actually fund renewable buildouts that traditional consumers never would.
So the real question is NOT whether Bitcoin uses energy. Anything of importance uses energy. That's the reality of living in the physical universe.
The real question is "What are we GETTING for the energy each system burns."
And what do we get with the bitcoin network financial system?
We get an open, auditable network where whoever (any human on the globe, not just corporate banks or rich countries) holds the keys holds the power. That's what Bitcoin's energy buys.
Energy is never free. The question is whether you're spending it on something worth owning.
Have you ever wondered if bitcoin was a waste of energy? If so, why do you think you did?
Let us know below and let's talk through it.
3
1 comment
"Bitcoin wastes too much energy." The banks would like a word.
powered by
skool.com/the-school-of-bits-4553
Everything you need to learn about bitcoin, crypto and investing fundamentals with lessons you'll remember forever.
Suggested communities
Powered by