Banking uses 56 times more energy than Bitcoin: Valuechain report
Fresh figures on Bitcoin’s (BTC) energy consumption, efficiency and scalability serve to expose the banking sector while bathing the world's largest cryptocurrency in a new light.
A research report published by Michel Khazzaka, an IT engineer, cryptographer and consultant, calculates that Bitcoin payments are a "million times more efficient" than the legacy financial system. Plus, the Banking sector “uses 56 times more energy than Bitcoin.”
The report compiles almost four years of research and suggests a new calculation for estimating Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work energy consumption. In an interview, Khazzaka told Cointelegraph:
Khazzaka, who founded payments consultancy Valuechain in late 2021, proposes an alternative to the energy estimates provided by Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI). The index, often cited by Cointelegraph, estimates that Bitcoin consumes roughly 122 TW/H per year.
Taking into account the average lifespan of Bitcoin mining machines as well as the rate at which new IT materials are created, Khazzaka suggests that Bitcoin consumes 88.95 TWh per year, considerably less than Cambridge's estimate.
A payments specialist who wrote his dissertation about cryptography in 2003, and discovered Bitcoin in 2011, Khazzaka also puts the banking sector under the microscope in order to effectively compare the two monetary systems. Khazzaka told Cointelegraph he “really underestimates every aspect of the banking sector,” and contrary to critics, his report is “biased to the banking system.”
Nonetheless, taking into account the creation of money, transporting money, physical banking infrastructure energy consumption, etc, he arrives at a figure of 4,981 TWh. Rounded up, 5,000 TWh is consumed by the
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