<story><title>Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index</title><url>https://cbeci.org/cbeci/comparisons</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Aunche</author><text>The first paragraph is a fair consideration. The second is a complete stretch. It&amp;#x27;s not as if America would suddenly stop providing military support to Saudi Arabia if we suddenly switched to bitcoin. An America that historically used Bitcoin would be even more incentivized to &amp;quot;secure&amp;quot; fossil fuel nations.</text></item><item><author>janoside</author><text>Nic Carter&amp;#x27;s rebuttal to a Bloomberg comparison between Bitcoin&amp;#x2F;Visa, including assessments of total and per&amp;#x2F;transaction energy usage:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;First of all, Bitcoin and Visa are fundamentally different systems. Bitcoin is a complete, self-contained monetary settlement system; Visa transactions are non-final credit transactions that rely on external underlying settlement rails. Visa relies on ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT, the global correspondent banking system, the Federal Reserve and, of course, the military and diplomatic strength of the U.S. government to ensure all of the above are working smoothly.&lt;p&gt;Any energy comparison must take the above into account – including the externalities from the extraction of oil, which implicitly backs the dollar. As those who make this comparison inevitably fail to mention, the dollar’s ubiquity is partly due to a covert arrangement whereby the U.S. provides military support to countries like Saudi Arabia that agree to sell oil exclusively for dollars. It’s worth noting that the grossly oversized U.S. military, whose presence worldwide is necessary to backstop the international dollar system, is the largest single consumer of oil worldwide.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.coindesk.com&amp;#x2F;what-bloomberg-gets-wrong-about-bitcoins-climate-footprint&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.coindesk.com&amp;#x2F;what-bloomberg-gets-wrong-about-bit...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>roenxi</author><text>If the Saudis started selling oil in bitcoin they&amp;#x27;d probably lose their military support and&amp;#x2F;or be overthrown.&lt;p&gt;It is difficult to justify why the US is providing militarily support to the Saudis without invoking oil and dollars. They are a pretty shady regime and not the sort of people the US wants to be supporting. And the Saudis don&amp;#x27;t seem to be trading with America as much as China [0, 1].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;tradingeconomics.com&amp;#x2F;saudi-arabia&amp;#x2F;exports-by-country&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;tradingeconomics.com&amp;#x2F;saudi-arabia&amp;#x2F;exports-by-country&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;tradingeconomics.com&amp;#x2F;saudi-arabia&amp;#x2F;imports-by-country&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;tradingeconomics.com&amp;#x2F;saudi-arabia&amp;#x2F;imports-by-country&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index</title><url>https://cbeci.org/cbeci/comparisons</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Aunche</author><text>The first paragraph is a fair consideration. The second is a complete stretch. It&amp;#x27;s not as if America would suddenly stop providing military support to Saudi Arabia if we suddenly switched to bitcoin. An America that historically used Bitcoin would be even more incentivized to &amp;quot;secure&amp;quot; fossil fuel nations.</text></item><item><author>janoside</author><text>Nic Carter&amp;#x27;s rebuttal to a Bloomberg comparison between Bitcoin&amp;#x2F;Visa, including assessments of total and per&amp;#x2F;transaction energy usage:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;First of all, Bitcoin and Visa are fundamentally different systems. Bitcoin is a complete, self-contained monetary settlement system; Visa transactions are non-final credit transactions that rely on external underlying settlement rails. Visa relies on ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT, the global correspondent banking system, the Federal Reserve and, of course, the military and diplomatic strength of the U.S. government to ensure all of the above are working smoothly.&lt;p&gt;Any energy comparison must take the above into account – including the externalities from the extraction of oil, which implicitly backs the dollar. As those who make this comparison inevitably fail to mention, the dollar’s ubiquity is partly due to a covert arrangement whereby the U.S. provides military support to countries like Saudi Arabia that agree to sell oil exclusively for dollars. It’s worth noting that the grossly oversized U.S. military, whose presence worldwide is necessary to backstop the international dollar system, is the largest single consumer of oil worldwide.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.coindesk.com&amp;#x2F;what-bloomberg-gets-wrong-about-bitcoins-climate-footprint&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.coindesk.com&amp;#x2F;what-bloomberg-gets-wrong-about-bit...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nostrademons</author><text>Take a look at OPEC companies that have priced oil in other currencies:&lt;p&gt;Iraq started pricing oil in euros in 1999:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theglobalist.com&amp;#x2F;iraq-the-dollar-and-the-euro-5&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theglobalist.com&amp;#x2F;iraq-the-dollar-and-the-euro-5&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Iran started pricing oil in yuan in 2012:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;business-17988142&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;business-17988142&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;What&amp;#x27;s our geopolitical relationship with Iraq and Iran now?</text></comment>