user114787: The bitcoin mining infrastructure uses a certain amount of energy and processing power to operate.
The resource usage is often cited as part of arguments critical of bitcoin.
But relatively speaking how much more resources does bitcoin mining take compared to physical currency?
No body really talks about all the resources that it takes to use physical currency.

The money first has to be produced in a mint.  That mint and the machines in it had to be built.  These are all of course specialty machines and are probably very expensive.  The building and machines require energy to operate.  They all need to be maintained.  And people need to be employed to do all those things.

Money is typically stored in banks.  There are thousands of bank locations in the world.  They all needed to be constructed.  And those buildings all require resources and people to operate.

Physical currency must actually be moved.  Moving any significant amount of physical currency requires security.  A large store typically has to hire an armored car to transport money from their safe to the bank.  An entire niche industry needs to exist to produce those vehicles.  Security workers need to be employed to operate them and protect the money.

Money must be stored.  Millions of safes/vaults were built so individuals, businesses, and banks can store their money.  In general there is a lot of resources spent on securing physical currency.



user114787: Since no one else has made the attempt, I will (partially) answer my own question.
To create a lower bound on the operating cost of the non-bitcoin financial system, I will add the operating costs of the 10 largest banks in the world.  2020/2021 are atypical years, so lets use the operating costs from 2019.
According to the doughroller.net these are the "10 largest" banks in the world, whatever that means.
https://www.doughroller.net/banking/largest-banks-in-the-world/
In total these banks employ 2.34 million people.  Their combined annual operating cost in 2019 was $625 billion US dollars.
This is of course an underestimate of the total true cost because there are hundreds of smaller banks I didn't list, as well expenses incurred by individuals that I have no way of figuring out.  Unfortunately it would probably take a large study by a university, government, or large financial institution to estimate a more accurate figure.
Below are the operating costs for each bank.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
Employees 460,000
OPERATING COST:  $92.464B
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/IDCBY/industrial-commercial-bank-of-china/financial-statements
China Construction Bank Corporation
EMPLOYEES:  330,000
OPERATING COST:  $28.822B (listed as 188,132M RMB)
http://www.ccb.com/en/newinvestor/upload/20200428_1588066796/20200428214237304314.pdf
Agricultural Bank of China
EMPLOYEES:  444,000 employees
OPERATING COST:  $38.556B (listed as 251.67B RMB)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Bank_of_China
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
EMPLOYEES:  106,000 employees
OPERATING COST:  $30B (¥2.8 trillion)
https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/931026/mitsubishi-ufj-mufg-records-dismal-earnings-in-fiscal-2019
Bank of China
EMPLOYEES:  310,000 employees
OPERATING COST:  $38.449B
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BACHY/bank-of-china/operating-expenses
J.P. Morgan Chase
EMPLOYEES:  245,000 employees
OPERATING COST:  $94.096B
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/JPM/jpmorgan-chase/income-statement
HSBC Holdings PLC
EMPLOYEES:  235,000 employees
OPERATING COST:  $57.427B
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/HSBC/hsbc/income-statement
BNP Paribas
EMPLOYEES:  190,000 employees
OPERATING COST:  $85.05B
https://invest.bnpparibas.com/sites/default/files/documents/ef_audites_eng_31.12.2019.pdf
Bank of America (BAC)
EMPLOYEES:  208,000 employees
OPERATING COST:  $80.835B
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BAC/bank-of-america/income-statement
Wells Fargo
EMPLOYEES:  270,000 employees
OPERATING COST:  $79.717B
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WFC/wells-fargo/income-statement

user117651: The most extensive research on this topic is:"An Order-of-Magnitude Estimate of the Relative Sustainability of the Bitcoin Network" by Hass McCook
among others, it cover specific topic as the economic and environmental cost of cash printing & coin minting, banking system, gold mining & recycling etc ...
The results of the research are summarized in the tables below.

take in mind that these data are from 2014, so Bitcoin cost of production and consumption are actually much higher.

These are the estimation about miners efficiency at the time, when the network hashrate was 130 Phash/s and the most efficient miner was Antminer S3 with 0.766 w/Ghash:

I redid the calculations using current hashrate of 186 Ehash/s, an efficiency of miners ranging from 0.1 w/Gh of Antminer S9 to S19 0.03 w/Gh and keeping all other assumptions the same, these are the results:

About 70/80 times more consumption than was in 2014 (depending on which energy efficiency you pick as network average). Certainly the costs of the other activities (banking, mining, minting) have also increased, but not in this size.
Although the research in question is detailed, the author was honest in saying that the data is not an accurate representation of reality, but an estimate of its order of magnitude.

114787: <p>The bitcoin mining infrastructure uses a certain amount of energy and processing power to operate.
The resource usage is often cited as part of arguments critical of bitcoin.</p>
<p><strong>But relatively speaking how much more resources does bitcoin mining take compared to physical currency?</strong></p>
<p>No body really talks about all the resources that it takes to use physical currency.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The money first has to be produced in a mint.  That mint and the machines in it had to be built.  These are all of course specialty machines and are probably very expensive.  The building and machines require energy to operate.  They all need to be maintained.  And people need to be employed to do all those things.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Money is typically stored in banks.  There are thousands of bank locations in the world.  They all needed to be constructed.  And those buildings all require resources and people to operate.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Physical currency must actually be moved.  Moving any significant amount of physical currency requires security.  A large store typically has to hire an armored car to transport money from their safe to the bank.  An entire niche industry needs to exist to produce those vehicles.  Security workers need to be employed to operate them and protect the money.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Money must be stored.  Millions of safes/vaults were built so individuals, businesses, and banks can store their money.  In general there is a lot of resources spent on securing physical currency.</p>
</li>
</ul>
 114787: <p>Since no one else has made the attempt, I will (partially) answer my own question.</p>
<p>To create a lower bound on the operating cost of the non-bitcoin financial system, I will add the operating costs of the 10 largest banks in the world.  2020/2021 are atypical years, so lets use the operating costs from 2019.</p>
<p>According to the doughroller.net these are the &quot;10 largest&quot; banks in the world, whatever that means.<BR>
<a href="https://www.doughroller.net/banking/largest-banks-in-the-world/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.doughroller.net/banking/largest-banks-in-the-world/</a></p>
<p>In total these banks employ 2.34 million people.  Their combined annual operating cost in 2019 was $625 billion US dollars.</p>
<p>This is of course an underestimate of the total true cost because there are hundreds of smaller banks I didn't list, as well expenses incurred by individuals that I have no way of figuring out.  Unfortunately it would probably take a large study by a university, government, or large financial institution to estimate a more accurate figure.</p>
<p>Below are the operating costs for each bank.</p>
<p>Industrial and Commercial Bank of China<BR>
Employees 460,000<BR>
OPERATING COST:  $92.464B<BR>
<a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/IDCBY/industrial-commercial-bank-of-china/financial-statements" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/IDCBY/industrial-commercial-bank-of-china/financial-statements</a><BR></p>
<p>China Construction Bank Corporation<BR>
EMPLOYEES:  330,000<BR>
OPERATING COST:  $28.822B (listed as 188,132M RMB)<BR>
<a href="http://www.ccb.com/en/newinvestor/upload/20200428_1588066796/20200428214237304314.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.ccb.com/en/newinvestor/upload/20200428_1588066796/20200428214237304314.pdf</a><BR></p>
<p>Agricultural Bank of China<BR>
EMPLOYEES:  444,000 employees<BR>
OPERATING COST:  $38.556B (listed as 251.67B RMB)<BR>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Bank_of_China" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Bank_of_China</a><BR></p>
<p>Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group<BR>
EMPLOYEES:  106,000 employees<BR>
OPERATING COST:  $30B (¥2.8 trillion)<BR>
<a href="https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/931026/mitsubishi-ufj-mufg-records-dismal-earnings-in-fiscal-2019" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/931026/mitsubishi-ufj-mufg-records-dismal-earnings-in-fiscal-2019</a><BR></p>
<p>Bank of China<BR>
EMPLOYEES:  310,000 employees<BR>
OPERATING COST:  $38.449B<BR>
<a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BACHY/bank-of-china/operating-expenses" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BACHY/bank-of-china/operating-expenses</a><BR></p>
<p>J.P. Morgan Chase<BR>
EMPLOYEES:  245,000 employees<BR>
OPERATING COST:  $94.096B<BR>
<a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/JPM/jpmorgan-chase/income-statement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/JPM/jpmorgan-chase/income-statement</a><BR></p>
<p>HSBC Holdings PLC<BR>
EMPLOYEES:  235,000 employees<BR>
OPERATING COST:  $57.427B<BR>
<a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/HSBC/hsbc/income-statement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/HSBC/hsbc/income-statement</a><BR></p>
<p>BNP Paribas<BR>
EMPLOYEES:  190,000 employees<BR>
OPERATING COST:  $85.05B<BR>
<a href="https://invest.bnpparibas.com/sites/default/files/documents/ef_audites_eng_31.12.2019.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://invest.bnpparibas.com/sites/default/files/documents/ef_audites_eng_31.12.2019.pdf</a><BR></p>
<p>Bank of America (BAC)<BR>
EMPLOYEES:  208,000 employees<BR>
OPERATING COST:  $80.835B<BR>
<a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BAC/bank-of-america/income-statement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BAC/bank-of-america/income-statement</a><BR></p>
<p>Wells Fargo<BR>
EMPLOYEES:  270,000 employees<BR>
OPERATING COST:  $79.717B<BR>
<a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WFC/wells-fargo/income-statement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WFC/wells-fargo/income-statement</a><BR></p>
 117651: <p>The most extensive research on this topic is:<br><a href="https://bitcoin.fr/public/divers/docs/Estimation_de_la_durabilite_et_du_cout_du_reseau_Bitcoin.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;An Order-of-Magnitude Estimate of the Relative Sustainability of the Bitcoin Network&quot;</a> by Hass McCook<br>
among others, it cover specific topic as the economic and environmental cost of cash printing &amp; coin minting, banking system, gold mining &amp; recycling etc ...</p>
<p>The results of the research are summarized in the tables below.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/gAZJA.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/gAZJA.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a>
take in mind that these data are from 2014, so Bitcoin cost of production and consumption are actually much higher.
<br><br>
These are the estimation about miners efficiency at the time, when the network hashrate was 130 Phash/s and the most efficient miner was Antminer S3 with 0.766 w/Ghash:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/rtKHg.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/rtKHg.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>I redid the calculations using current hashrate of 186 Ehash/s, an efficiency of miners ranging from 0.1 w/Gh of Antminer S9 to S19 0.03 w/Gh and keeping all other assumptions the same, these are the results:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/UPlCM.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/UPlCM.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>About 70/80 times more consumption than was in 2014 (depending on which energy efficiency you pick as network average). Certainly the costs of the other activities (banking, mining, minting) have also increased, but not in this size.</p>
<p>Although the research in question is detailed, the author was honest in saying that the data is not an accurate representation of reality, but an estimate of its order of magnitude.</p>
