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To think that the mining bitcoin is a waste of energy? So it is better to ignore the energy consumption of the US Christmas lights every year, which uses more electricity than some countries.
Energy consumption of Christmas lights in the United States
It's the season to be happy. The period of the year when family and friends gather, children play, singers sing and consumerism reaches a feverish height. The hordes of people spend money they do not have on things they do not need, with the average American that exceeds almost $ 1,000 during the holidays. Oh, and the energy consumption of Christmas lights in the United States is greater than in entire countries.
Quite right. The shimmering lights that American consumers deliberately shed on their roofs and courtyards in an attempt to out-do their neighbors compensate for an astounding 6.63 billion kilowatt-hour of electricity consumption each year.
Let's give some context. This is more than the entire national energy consumption of many developing countries every year. This includes El Salvador, which has a population of 6.3 million and uses 5.35 billion kilowatt-hours of the year and Ethiopia with a population of 105 million consuming up to 5.30 billion kilowatt-hours.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been pushed into the public sphere for their energy consumption characteristics. It is true that mining encryption requires a good deal of energy at about 215 kilowatt-hours of energy per bitcoin (or 56 million kilowatt-hours per day based on 262,202 average transactions).
It's a lot, do not make mistakes. But while cryptocurrency mining is looking for sustainable solutions, cleaner energy and the possible transition to Proof of Stake, nothing is done for those sparkling fairy lights.
Sound Money or Christmas Lights: choose one
Alejandro de la Torre, VP Business Operations at BTC.com, Bitmain's largest mining pool (and the largest bitcoin mining pool in the world), said Bitcoinist in an interview at the Web Summit, you need to put energy consumption in context.
"First of all," he says, "mining pools are creating jobs and, secondly, we are talking about a very important technology … that will help us grow and be financially secure".
So, this is the excuse of Bitcoin. And the energy consumption of the Christmas lights of the United States? You do not see environmentalists pointing their finger at that.
But then again, in the list of states' excessive behavior, it becomes a bit insignificant. Even Christmas lights make up only 0.2 percent of all the energy consumed in this power-hungry nation.
Bitcoin gets a bad reputation for using a lot of electricity? Share your thoughts below?
Images courtesy of Shutterstock
