I think people compare cryptocurrency energy usage to other nations for the same reason we use football fields to measure length. The trouble is, people have a pretty poor idea of the size of a field or the energy usage of a country!
The comparison to the emissions of gold is probably more useful than most metrics I've seen used.
little side note: the link is broken for the first study, here it is for anyone else looking:
I think people compare cryptocurrency energy usage to other nations for the same reason we use football fields to measure length. The trouble is, people have a pretty poor idea of the size of a field or the energy usage of a country!
The comparison to the emissions of gold is probably more useful than most metrics I've seen used.
little side note: the link is broken for the first study, here it is for anyone else looking:
https://www.yahoo.com/video/galaxy-digital-bitcoin-consumes-less-064229894.html