A single Bitcoin transaction consumes roughly 700 kilowatt-hours of electricity—enough to power the average American home for 24 days. Critics call this wasteful, but they're missing the point entirely.

That energy isn't burned for nothing. It's the fuel that powers a $1 trillion fortress. Every kilowatt creates computational work so expensive that attacking Bitcoin would cost billions per hour—more than most countries spend on defense annually. When hackers want to steal from traditional banks, they need to crack passwords or bribe insiders. When they want to attack Bitcoin, they need to outspend the entire network's energy consumption in real-time, indefinitely.

Think of it like this: Fort Knox uses armed guards, multiple vaults, and constant surveillance to protect America's gold reserves. Bitcoin uses mathematics and electricity to protect digital gold for anyone, anywhere. The traditional banking system processes far more transactions while consuming vastly more energy across millions of branches, data centers, and corporate headquarters—yet nobody questions whether Wells Fargo's headquarters should exist.

The energy isn't waste; it's the price of creating something genuinely unstoppable. Every mining rig burning electricity today means your Bitcoin will be just as secure tomorrow, whether you're sending $50 or $50 million across the globe at 3 AM on a Sunday.