They Said Bitcoin Wasted Energy. Then the Lights Went Out.

They said Bitcoin was a waste of energy. A digital pet rock burning up the planet one block at a time. But let’s flip the script. Let’s really talk about waste. Because while they pointed fingers at miners, the fiat system quietly gorged itself on an endless buffet of inefficiency.

What do you call energy spent fueling forever wars on foreign soil? Jets, tanks, ships, all guzzling oil to protect a system built on debt and control. That’s not waste? That’s not moral decay wrapped in patriotic branding?

What about the bloated bureaucracies that shuffle paper for a living? The glass towers full of suits signing off on policies that inflate your rent, devalue your labor, and punish your savings. Electricity flows through millions of government computers tracking your every move, but sure, let’s talk about Bitcoin’s carbon footprint.

Ever notice the central banks don’t care about emissions when printing trillions out of thin air? Quantitative easing wasn’t green. It was theft. Quiet, surgical, and denominated in digits that bought yachts, not bread. And the irony? They’ll push CBDCs next and act like they’re solving the energy crisis with digital fiat, when in reality, it's just surveillance wrapped in convenience.

Bitcoin mining, on the other hand, is brutally honest. It doesn’t hide its energy use. It earns its existence. Every block is a proof of work, a timestamped declaration that says: “Someone, somewhere, did the math.” That kind of integrity? It’s rare. And threatening.

As of 2024, approximately 54.5% of Bitcoin’s network is powered by renewable or sustainable energy. That’s more than any traditional financial institution can claim. Bitcoin miners chase cheap energy wherever it exists, and cheap energy is often green energy. Hydroelectric in the Nordics, wind farms in Texas, and surplus solar in remote regions all feed into this global engine of freedom.

Meanwhile, the legacy financial system operates like a broken arcade machine—loud, inefficient, and stuck in the past. Banks leave buildings lit 24/7. Government contractors burn through billions maintaining outdated IT infrastructure. Energy is spent on enforcing bad policy, funding bloated defense budgets, and propping up industries that should have gone extinct decades ago.

Want to talk about emissions? Let’s talk about the petrodollar system. The global oil trade is denominated in dollars, which means maintaining dollar supremacy often involves military action, foreign interference, and political instability. That’s a carbon-intensive reality that nobody wants to account for when comparing Bitcoin to the status quo.

And yet, Bitcoin quietly marches on. It’s not just an asset. It’s a mirror held up to the world. It forces us to ask uncomfortable questions. What should energy be used for? Securing a monetary system that respects individual freedom? Or enforcing a system that thrives on debt, decay, and delusion?

The fiat world runs on hidden costs. Subsidized pollution. Military expenditures that never show up in CPI. Human capital burned chasing inflation, escaping poverty, and complying with rules that shift like desert winds.

Bitcoin exposes the lies they built the fiat world on. It shines a light on the real waste. Not the megawatts burned securing the hardest money known to man, but the trillions wasted propping up a dying empire.

So yeah, they said Bitcoin wasted energy. But then the lights went out. The economy buckled. And the ones who mocked proof-of-work? They had nothing to show for all the power they consumed. Except debt, despair, and a narrative that finally ran out of fuel.

Bitcoin keeps running. Tick tock. Next block.