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> Bitcoin uses less energy than YouTube

I believe this is totally wrong - I think Bitcoin uses significantly more than YouTube. Where did you get your numbers?

The 2020 Google Environmental Report [1] lists the total energy consumption of all Google/Alphabet data centers as ~12.2 TWh/year in 2019 and growing at about 2 TWh/year. (See page 32.) So in 2022 the approximate usage for all Google/Alphabet properties, not just YouTube, would be about 18.2 TWh.

Meanwhile, Statista estimates Bitcoin as consuming about 177 TWh/year [2].

So this means Bitcoin consumes about 10x as much as not just YouTube but all Google/Alphabet data centers combined!

There are some urban legends about YouTube using much more energy than it does; some of those urban legends are refuted here: [3]

[1] https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/google-2020-e... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/881472/worldwide-bitcoin... [3] https://www.iea.org/commentaries/the-carbon-footprint-of-str...



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