I was curious about the actual number; how much energy does Bitcoin use?
> the bitcoin network in 2020 consumes 120 gigawatts (GW) per second.
GW / s. (/year, I suppose, since it's just 2020. But FFS. Edit: no, GW / s / year is GW, but that's still not… really? right? I mean, maybe it's an average of the energy consumption rate over the year, and so on average, in 2020, it was consuming 120GW?)
Uhh no. Stephen is not discussing BTC energy usage. This is sanctimonious, moralistic grandstanding that presupposes “Bitcoin bad” as a moral absolute straw man to set up a nasty, useless screed railing against it.
If there was some legit discussion in it, that would be fine. There utterly is none.
I can't find a single factual statement in Stephen's tweet thread I disagree with. Your use of subjective pejoratives rather than specifics seems to imply that you are the same position.
Your response is deeply unreasonable. Here’s a quote from Stephen’s thread,
> “ Unlike other economic activities, the bitcoin scheme produces absolutely nothing for all this waste. It is a pure speculative activity of people gambling on the random movements of prices and the only output is simply shuffling numbers around in a computer at insane cost.”
That is nothing but complete grandstanding decoupled from reality. It deserves to be criticized with pejorative language because Stephen’s comments are so wildly extreme, inflammatory, and totally disconnected from facts or reality. It meets the literal definition of a rambling screed and needs to be called out as such.
Beyond the pale? Beyond the pale to discuss Bitcoin energy usage. Some bitcoin people never cease to amaze me.
On top of that, the answer for all of the above is effectively zero compared to Bitcoin.
https://www.thebalance.com/how-much-power-does-the-bitcoin-n...
And I think that's part of the issue - a number of people aren't appreciating exactly how incredibly wasteful Bitcoin mining is.