Bitcoin transaction expenses

Data consultant and blockchain specialist Alex De Vries believes that the amount of energy Bitcoin mining consumes is problematic. In a recent research study published in Joule, De Vries found that the average amount of electricity consumed per Bitcoin transaction is 300 kwH, and at the rate new miners are joining the network

At 20 cents per kwH, we get $60 in cost per transaction.  We need a minimum transaction size of $3600  to reasonably cover the costs compared to a typical bank transfer.   JPM has a higher price, but they include capital equipment, a  more correct accounting.

Bitcoin proper cannot be used for general purchases, it is strictly a central bank hedge and currency exchange at the wholesale level.  I think the potential costs go up as the ledger size increases, but it is probabilistic, it depends on a long past whale engaging in a transaction the restructures the block chain. In a closed environment with trusted miners, the whale effect is not a real problem, and the number of trusted miners small.  And in a closed environment, it is possible for trusted miners to decide that the long past transaction of a block chain can be deleted, agreeing not to disagree in the future, the transaction history just erased.

In other words, a trusted miner system allows the trusted miners to agree to cover any provable discrepancy that may show up in the long  past, their are no whale accounts.  This shortening of the block chain, making it finite is mostly about equalizing risk among accounts.  If you have no whales, and the transaction price is a bit high, we get a filtering effect that equalizes account risk. And risk equalization is why the pit boss can forget the past.

JPM Net, for example.  The JPM net boss knows all of JPM clients, they are risk equalized. So, JPM Net can safely take the longest past in a block chain, and store that in permanent storage, have all the clients work from a smaller chain without risk.