Bitcoin vs porn: an energy comparison

Global internet infrastructure is now built into most aspects of developed societies. Commerce, communication, infrastructure, industry, entertainment, and governance are all reliant on the internet in some way for full functionality in 2022.

It’s now estimated that 10% of the world’s total electricity consumption is dedicated to the internet as its been embedded into most facets of human societies. The aggregate costs of the internet aren’t questioned as they’re now part of an essential public utility.

Enter porn. Pornography has been a ubiquitous feature of humanity from ancient times. With the rise of a global communication network (the internet) porn was among the earliest and remains one of the most prevalent use-cases of the network.

It’s estimated that up to 30% of all data transferred on the internet is pornography.

Other sources show ranges between 30-70% of ISP traffic is pornography related traffic.

There are a lot of numbers thrown around - some higher, some lower. But the general approximations shown above have decent evidence supporting the claims. And per those estimations, porn is responsible for somewhere north of 3% of total global energy.

Even if porn is conservatively responsible for 10% of total internet usage, and the internet uses 10% of global energy, that means 1% of global energy is dedicated to pornography.

Contrast that to bitcoin, which consumes .16% of total global energy, and things become clear. Bitcoin is a decentralized global money / property / utility. Porn isn’t.

I have nothing against porn. But if the energy used globally on porn isn’t ever questioned or policed, then there in no reason to ever question or police bitcoin’s energy consumption.