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>Number of U.S. households powered for 1 day by the electricity consumed for a single transaction: 5.58

The one that surprised me the most

It's a bad stat. The electricity that goes into a block doesn't just confirm the transactions in the block, it also confirms all the transactions in all blocks prior to that block, and those transactions have a cumulative value of about $70 billion.

The bleak picture painted on the article is an incomplete one by far.

Why is it a bad stat? Is having to confirm all transactions in all prior blocks not a direct result of a transaction? Why is the cumulative value relevant? I can see how there is a perceived value there but if the transaction didn’t happen it wouldn’t have been needed?

If the block had zero transactions in it, it still would have cost just as much energy to create.

Similarly, if the price of the coin were 1/1000th but the block were full, it would have cost 1/1000th the price to confirm those transactions.

What determines the cost/mining reward of a block is not the transactions in it, but the value of the chain as a whole.

Ah got it. Thanks.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com