&gt;<i>Any payment system requires energy and electricity. With traditional currency, lots of energy is consumed guarding and moving gold bullions around</i><p>Whenever the topic of bitcoin&#x27;s inherent wastefulness is discussed, someone always brings up this point, but it&#x27;s a fallacious comparison because most of the power consumed by the traditional financial system is spent in its capacity as a ubiquitous pillar of modern society, wherein bitcoin would be completely subsumed were it to become anything more than a technical novelty.<p>Even when you subtract the common denominator that represents the vast majority of the world&#x27;s financial intuitions, bitcoin is still the only currency that burns resources as a function of its circulation.