Quant vs. BitCoin

Q1: Are the coins mined?

A1: No. Not in the conventional sense. Currently QuantChain is a proof-of-stake, not proof-of-work. Presently the Quant sit on the BitShares blockchain and are distributed by the QuantChain creator, Dan Robles. The screenshot below shows the state of my chain:

Q2: Scarcity Since the doc says there is no scarcity, are they just assigned based on our Project work?

A2: Yes, tokens are currently assigned arbitrarily on a per-Participant (Project) basis. Also, the number if Quant is finite and has a total pool of 223,300,000,050,980, (two-hundred twenty-three trillion, three-hundred billion, fifty-thousand, nine-hundred and eighty) which apparently was the magnitude of global debt as measured in 2015 when the Quant was initially cast. See screenshot below:

Q3 Energy intensity: Is the energy intensity of BitShares greater than the energy intensity of a Visa transaction? How does it compare to mining BitCoin? I would like to understand the energy intensiveness of the coins maintained on the BitShares blockchain and transfers/transactions. 

A3: I presumed that E_BitShare_transaction < E_Visa_transaction < E_BitCoin_transaction, and did a little research and found what appears to be an authoritative article with various pros and cons. I did not see any discussion of relative energy intensities, so will do a bit more digging by attempting to engage those who maintain the BitShares witness nodes.