Exactly 14 years ago , Satoshi Nakamoto designed the most pathetic / inefficient system ever invented by humankind : the blockchain.
Today, it weights 60 000 tons, wastes constantly 10 gigawatts .. to process less than 7 transactions per second :
Less than a 33 bps modem from 1990.
This could be joke if it didn't have such gigantic environmental impact, wasn't enabling billion dolllars ransomware industry and was not crushing thousands of lives in the process.
But you're falling for the sensationalized, but misleading, description of Bitcoin that far too many outlets have sold for clicks over the last couple of years.
Bitcoin does not have a gigantic environmental impact. Bitcoin can be run quite easily on a raspberry pi with a car battery. It would be fine. It does not have a large environmental impact.
HOWEVER people are finding so much value in the system that they are willing to trade energy for it in order to participate, even though the system does not require that.
This whole story about Bitcoin having such an environmental impact is akin to saying that artwork demands tremendous resources merely because people pay a lot of money for a famous painting.
No, just like the painting, the thing does not require that. It's just found to be valuable enough that people pay much more than it requires.
Misleading press aside.
Sure, except for the other applications of Bitcoin that so many of us have experienced first hand.
It sounds like this is one of those cases where somebody declares that nobody uses Bitcoin to buy and sell things, which is a whole lot of news to all of us who use Bitcoin to buy and sell things.
