Quote from: mixedfish on January 11, 2022, 06:21:14
If these people were generally concerned about the environment then they'd be concerned about the impact from fiat donations. Think about all the energy used for paper statements, transfer/deposits , manual reconciliation, communications between reciprocating banks/facilities and of course the reporting to authority upon receipt of high value foreign deposits.
If people were genuinely discussing these issues in earnest then there wouldn't be so much outrage and instead suggesting that Monzilla move to cypto's like XRP etc SMH :-\
I don't work in the banking sector and so I don't know how exactly it works between banks, but I can't recall the last time I saw a piece of paper from my bank. These days, even contracts are digital. And their computer systems are far more efficient than the BTC network. Also, most of the money that flows through my hands, so to speak, is not physical - it was never printed, never transported, never deposited. When it's transferred to a different bank, it's all done electronically via our central bank. There is no physical currency being transported as a result. I don't know how the reporting works, but all the reporting I have to do is electronic as well. Some things can be submitted on a form, but the more detailed reporting is exclusively electronic. And in my case, if I tried to submit anything in a paper form (like a tax return), I would be fined. Because I have everything needed for electronic communication, I'm obliged by law to do so. And the same is true in the opposite direction - I should never ever receive physical mail from authorities again.
It really is incomparable. Cryptocurrencies are inherently inefficient because you're trying to replace trust. By making cheating very expensive. Traditional banking systems rely on trust and can therefore be much more efficient. Sure, you've got some overheads due to redundancy, encryption, auditing, but it's orders of magnitude less than what cryptocurrencies have to deploy in order to replace trust. And the worst part is that there is no upper bound on the overhead. There can't be. As a network behind a cryptocurrency grows, it will consume more and more resources and be less and less efficient. Not because they are actually needed to render a service, but to be sacrificed on the altar of trustlessness. It's a race to inefficiency. Removing trust is desirable, but this is heck of a price.