In a detailed paper, Hass McCook has published his research into the relative sustainability of Bitcoin, printed money, credit cards denominated in fiat currency and industrial gold mining. While it’s understood that running Bitcoin mining hardware consumes significant electricity for the hobbyist, just how this stacks up when compared to the true costs of these other money systems may surprise you.

In this video I briefly chat to Hass at one of the weekly Bitcoin Meetups held at Spooning Goats, Sydney’s coolest place to buy craft beer and meat pies with Bitcoin. We then catch him at CryptoCon 2014 delivering a summary of his research results to enthusiastic attendees.

For those who want to read further into the details, read his original research paper or you might like Hass’ article series on Coindesk on the Economic and Environmental Costs of Bitcoin Mining.