Channels are slow. Goroutines are fast.

gistfile1.go

func BenchmarkSingleGoroutine(b *testing.B) {
	in := make(chan struct{})
	out := make(chan struct{})
	go func(in, out chan struct{}) {
		for {
			b := <-in
			out <- b
		}

	}(in, out)

	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
		in <- struct{}{}
		<-out
	}
}

func BenchmarkSingleChan(b *testing.B) {
	done := make(chan struct{})

	blah := func(done chan struct{}) {
		done <- struct{}{}
	}

	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
		go blah(done)
		<-done
	}
}

// Results

// BenchmarkSingleGoroutine	 3000000	       479 ns/op
// BenchmarkSingleChan	 5000000	       396 ns/op