r/science • u/shiruken PhD | Biomedical Engineering | Optics • 9d ago

Epidemiology New research estimates that the 34 largest Bitcoin mining operations in the United States consumed more electricity in 2022 than all of Los Angeles combined. 85% of the electricity came from fossil fuels and exposed 1.9 million Americans to more than 0.1  μg/m3 of additional PM2.5 pollution.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58287-3
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u/[deleted] 9d ago edited 9d ago

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u/JM00000001 9d ago

Or brick and mortar banks. How much electricity is consumed by the infrastructure that supports global trade? You can easily argue that with wider adoption this would be a more efficient way for the world to transact.

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u/Oh_ffs_seriously 9d ago

Use cases for physical banking and Bitcoin are completely different, so this comparison doesn't make sense. If physical banking is to be replaced, it will be replaced by digital banking, which is already significantly more efficient than Bitcoin.

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u/JM00000001 9d ago

Digital banking doesn't run itself.

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u/Oh_ffs_seriously 9d ago edited 9d ago

It doesn't have to. EDIT: Even though it mostly does. You know about servers, right?

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u/JM00000001 9d ago

How many people are employed full time maintaining the whole operation? How many buildings? What are their electric costs? They're not carbon neutral either. And it's more than just the cost of running a server. They also have to convince you that they're credible and responsible enough to handle your money and all your transactions. How do they do that? With giant offices and thousands of people making executive salaries. The costs are astronomical all to make you think that they are smart and responsible and you need them. It's basically a religion except you get office towers in Manhattan instead of churches and ceos instead of priests. But that end of it doesn't count right?