The Netherlands is entry 71 in a list of countries by population, making it very 'mid' indeed. You're comparing it to the USA, which is the third most populous nation on earth, of course it's significantly smaller!
The problem with the "Olympic Pool" scale of measures is that it has no real meaning to most people.
Yes the Netherlands is "mid table" in a list of countries, but absent a good knowledge of statistics, population distribution, and geographic energy consumption, especially with relation to the Netherlands, it's a meaningless measure.
Since I had none of the above, I went to look it up. And frankly I have no idea if you actually compared Bitcoin to the Netherlands (in terms of energy consumption) or just randomly picked a country.
Let me be general. I have no idea about the Netherlands. I have no idea if you know anything about the Netherlands. That's the root of my concern with your comparison. It "sounds" like a useful comparison- but is it?
Now, had you said that Bitcoin consumes about 0.5% of global energy, and that there are just under 200 countries (meaning on average 0.5% each) then that's a measure I can absorb.
I might then point out that the US consumes 25% of the world energy supply, despite having 5% of global population, so the 0.5% of bitcoin consumption is really not moving the needle.
The Netherlands is entry 71 in a list of countries by population, making it very 'mid' indeed. You're comparing it to the USA, which is the third most populous nation on earth, of course it's significantly smaller!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...
But hey, let's look at some better figures, estimated energy use is now in the region of 200TWh - https://www.statista.com/statistics/881472/worldwide-bitcoin...
Which puts it somewhere around an Egypt or a Malaysia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electrici...
> If bitcoin is using the same as 17 million people, that'd really not that much in relation to the overall population.
That's a value judgement and you'll notice I've been careful not to put any into my comments.