The value of Bitcoin crossed $11000 at the beginning of this week. Consumption by mining it in the last month has increased by nearly 30%.
According to Digiconomist, this expenditure represents approximately 0.13% of the world's total electricity consumption.
Bitcoin energy consumption levels
Bitcoin energy studies were conducted by PowerCompare, a UK-based energy comparison pricing service. According to their analyses, the average electricity used to operate bitcoin in 2017 exceeded the annual energy consumption of more than 159 countries.
This new research used data provided by Digiconomist. The current estimate of electricity used for bitcoin extraction is approximately 30 TWh per year. Digiconomist also found that Ethereum, the second most commonly used cryptocurrency, also spends a huge amount of energy.
Why does Bitcoin consume so much energy?
Bitcoin is a digital money, created and stored electronically. Bitcoins are not printed, like dollars or euros. They are produced by people, and companies, using softwares that solve mathematical problems.
Extracting Bitcoin requires the use of graphics cards or integrated circuits specific to high energy consuming applications.
The exorbitant amounts of energy required to operate the cryptocurrency make it a danger to the environment. This is because much of the world's electricity still comes from fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases. This means that the extraction of cryptocurrency contributes to climate change.
A perspective often overlooked. The more popular bitcoin becomes the more centralized is seems to become also, with a majority of this power consumption coming from enormous concentrated mining farms. I know the Bitcoin Gold fork strives to make mining more feasible for the average individual but doubt that would solve the power consumption issue.
All in all great post. This inspires me to look into this aspect deeper and check out what cryptos are less demanding on the power grid.
Very good article. Power consumption is one of the biggest caveats in crypto. Over 0.1% of the worlds power consumption is definitely tough. It's very important to support alternatives, like IOTA or POS coins.
Good point re the consumption of electricity. I hadn't thought of that.
Actually pretty interesting to know this. I say solar powered rigs should be looked into as an idea... Sustainable mining for the win! 💯
I agree. If it stays at POW, solar power is one way to go. Also, genesis minings new farm in iceland is powered by geothermics, and there's projects like hydrominer from austria which use waterpower. But it would be awesome to find a way for cryptographic proof that doesn't use so much electricity. It's just a waste in my opinion. And I think this will be a big issue in the future.
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