An interesting BBC article points out that the worldwide mining of Bitcoin may actually use more energy than my entire country. I find that mind-boggling and at the same time completely possible.
Source
Here's an excerpt from the article about how the energy usage is calculated:
A widely-used formula to calculate energy consumption is from the crypto-currency blog Digiconomist, which relies on the performance specifications of common mining technology.
It takes total mining revenues as a starting point, estimates the operational costs to miners as a percentage of their revenues, and then converts these costs into energy consumption based on average electricity prices.
According to this method, Bitcoin's current annual electricity consumption is estimated to be 32.56 terawatt hours (TWh).
This is how comparisons with entire countries are being made.
For example, data from Eurostat shows that in 2015, Denmark consumed 30.7 TWh of electricity and the Republic of Ireland consumed 25.07 TWh.
I'm a novice in the world of crypto. Does it concern you that Bitcoin is possible having a major impact on the environment from the large energy consumption needed to mine it?
@pennsif, who made me aware of the article, pointed out that in terms of the impact on the climate, it might make a case for shifting from Bitcoin to Steem, as Steem is not generated in the same way.
The cost of solar has dropped so much that you can cut the cost of energy out by adding solar power to mining. The profitability has to do with how much you spend on electricity. So in my mining farm right now is just one 4 GPU's I am setting into a wallet moneys to buy solar once the solar is added the return is better so I can set more aside for extra solar panels. Cost of solar from last year to this is almost half as much and $50 worth of bitcoin from Jan 2017 is now worth almost $1,000 So even if you pay a premium of electric to mine it you end up making more over time.
I think Bitcoin mining is going to fund a ton of solar and wind farms.
Just my 2 satoshi worth.
I have thought about buying something to mine bitcoin but electricity isn't cheap here and I don't want to pay my already rich provider more money. So I've stuck to coins I can mine with 1 GPU or a CPU. I'm trying some proof of stake coins too. At least bitcoin mining wont go on forever but the only way I would do it is if I used solar power.
I did a blog post on some of the new start ups that are considering the energy consumption towards mining. I support their efforts. We just need to make it more publicly known about this Thanks for sharing, RESTEEMED
Thank you :) Please drop a link to your post so it's easy for people to find. :)
Here is a link to my Blog about a Start up that fixes the mining consumption of Energy Use.
https://steemit.com/blockchain/@gardengirlcanada/fixing-blockchain-and-energy-industry-problems
Great, thank you.
Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
https://british-utilities.co.uk/2017/bitcoin-does-it-really-use-more-electricity-than-ireland-bbc-news/
Not cheating @cheetah. Seems like the same article I linked to but from a different source, my links are legit :)
frugal lady, you might be getting cheetah because you are quoting more than is allowed. the correct way to do this would be to cite a sentence of two, then link to the article. cheetah might still be triggered, but there is less of a chance. you might also be getting pegged for the photo, which is copyrighted.
Thank you for letting me know. I'll change the photo, didn't realise the issue with it. On the quotation, how can there be limits as long as you cite the source? I'm not familiar with any such rules.