Energy saving – L’still young universe of cryptocurrency already suffers from many platitudes and other clichés. An example of this is the energy management and consumption required to mine BTC. Faced with this injustice that sometimes condemns Bitcoin and its consumption too quickly, the report Bitcoin: Energy efficiency of crypto-payments compared the consumption of traditional finance with that of Bitcoin as well as the energy efficiency of the two means of payment. Results.
Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency bursting with energy
The report Bitcoin: Energy efficiency of crypto-payments is published by value chain a payment consulting firm. It took four years to achieve the results obtained in this study led by Michel Khazzaka, computer engineer, cryptographer and blockchain consultant.
To say that Bitcoin does not consume energy would be inaccurate and this is the first postulate that this report makes. Listing Bitcoin’s energy flaws is not the purpose of the text either. However, Bitcoin is a victim of its detractors who like to declare it persona non grata because of its energy-intensive consumption.
Evidenced by the determination of theEurope with its MiCa law supposed to ban protocols Proof of Work (Proof of Work), too energetic according to the European institution. Source of anxiety for the cryptosphere, this law has sounded the death of Bitcoin several times, which resists. The wrath of the SEC and some national and international regulators also weighs on the king of cryptocurrencies.
As a reminder, the Proof of work, POW is a block transaction validation system. This protocol solves complex computer calculations to settle transactions and thus ensure optimum security. In fact, this technology consumes, according to analyses, between 88.85 TWz and 122 TWz per year (this last figure being the official result provided by the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index).
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Banks better save their energy
In this face to face, the report underlines that depending on the angle in which one places oneself, traditional finance would also need to render energy accounts. The researcher underlines with relevance that certain parameters are forgotten in the calculation of the pollution of the banking system. It is therefore necessary to take into account the importance of energy consumption intermediariesabsent on the side of the bitcoin network :
- transporting money;
- the energy consumption of banking infrastructures (electricity, pollution of employees to travel to their places of work, pollution of money convoys by Brinks, etc.);
- the banknote creation process;
- cash management;
- bank and interbank payments.
Taking these parameters into account, the study arrives at a total of 4981 TWh / year. In other words, Bitcoin only spends what it needs to exist. Bitcoin is self-sufficient. In contrast, a bank spends collateral energy costs to perform the service you request from it. The Lightning Networkpayment network Peer to peer allows the feat of a payment without intermediary from point A to point B. Supported by a whole bunch of calculations that we will not be able to reproduce, the report then comes to this conclusion:
“We demonstrate that Bitcoin consumes 56 times less energy than the classical system, and that even at the single transaction level, a PoW transaction is 1 to 5 times more energy efficient. »
Banks vs Bitcoin: which payment system to choose?
Bitcoin paired with the Lightning Network would then allow the asset to become 194 million times more efficient than the traditional payment system and more economical what’Instant payment (immediate transfer offered by banks) or the SWIFT system. It would therefore be for traditional finance to reduce its mass monetary issuance. It could also increase a circulation of electronic money. Central banks becoming heavy energy consumers.
Khazzaka, faced with the evidence of these studies, told our colleagues at Coin Telegraph:
“Bitcoin Lightning, and Bitcoin in general, are really great and very effective technology solutions that deserve to be widely adopted. »
The capacity of Lightning Network is also mentioned, for its effectiveness in the face of mass adoption. Bitcoin network can cash out 31 billion transactions per day compared to 31 million for traditional payment networks. This discrepancy is due to cross-border systems. They suffer from a low number of transactions per second (around 1,000 per second for the SWIFT payment system).
” In conclusion, Lightning at the level of a single transaction allows Bitcoin to achieve 194 million times more energy efficiency than a classic payment and up to 1 million more than an instant payment, (…). »
Bitcoin fall, cryptocurrency bear market, regulatory wrath, degraded macroeconomic context… so many threats hovering over Bitcoin. Rejected by the mainstream media who previously loved it in secret, a report such as this is welcome and even essential in these gloomy times. We will not spare the verb to praise the merits of the created by Satoshi Nakamoto.
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