Home Bitcoin News Bitcoin (BTC) Enthusiasts Disagree with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Statement of 75 Gallons of Gasoline

Bitcoin (BTC) Enthusiasts Disagree with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Statement of 75 Gallons of Gasoline

Bitcoin goes up the energy consumption

Brad Garlinghouse recently expressed, it’s great to see more and more individual players taking action to address climate change/use renewables for mining, but we need consensus (no pun intended) across the entire industry to make all cryptos 100% renewable.

BTC is an exceptional store of value. It’s just not ideal as a payments mechanism bc of PoW energy costs / CO2 emitted (estimates show a weighted average carbon intensity of 480-500 gCO2eq per kWh)

As the price of Bitcoin goes up the energy consumption and the carbon foot print of a proof of work that mining that happens to validate transactions that continues to scale aggressively also.  Also, I think we can’t lose sight of the fact that one Bitcoin transaction is equivalent of about 75 gallons of gasoline being burned.

When talking about the impact of Bitcoin mining on the environment, the statement “one Bitcoin transaction equals 75 gallons of gasoline being burned: triggered enough controversial responses.

However some users expressed that this is misleading for complicated reasons about Bitcoin being a non-geographically dependant energy sink.

Some also stated, the whole idea of mining is to have a decentralized system. Trust without needing to trust particular individuals. Ripple – create something properly and leave bitcoin alone. Different sport different game.

Some also stated, this is debatable, not everyone is into mining, so please don’t cast a long shadow because of a few bad eggs. Keep in mind, there are genuine investors and the government is in control of energy resources due to the money and corruption involved.

The argument got further got fired up with statements like if you own BTC and are part of the mining “problem” that is how the blockchain settles transactions in a secure network. Also, users stated that the problem with bitcoin is how long it takes to send money. Also, that XRP is instant and 100 times cheaper. Both protocols have value and I don’t agree with the climate thing.

It also becomes important to take into consideration that BTC miners are switching massively to renewable resources like solar and dam electricity. In fact, this might help push renewable resources on the point of major adoption worldwide.

Some pointed to how BTC uses roughly 32.56 TWh yearly and the banking industry uses around 140 TWh per year. Further stated, the fight should not be between crypto companies, but crypto with the banks.

Those who agree with Brad stated how many brains you need to understand that mining a Bitcoin will continue to become more complicated and will be more expensive.  Also, that it does not scale and it is not sustainable. Some are very clear that it is not practical to let greed affect the younger generation.

It just looks like until some hard core innovation dawns on reducing the Bitcoin energy mining, these kinds of arguments are set to continue.

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James

James T, a passionate crypto journalist from South Africa, explores Litecoin, Dash, & Bitcoin intricacies. Loves sharing insights. Enjoy his work? Donate to support! Dash: XrD3ZdZAebm988BfHr1vqZZu6amSGuKR5F

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