After Bitcoin broke the $7,000 USD barrier last week, several individuals have taken to mining the cryptocurrency in hopes of being able to mine a Bitcoin. However, most miners seem to have severely underestimated the power requirements that Bitcoin mining demands.
New statistics from the prominent cryptocurrency analyst, Alex de Vries, or otherwise known as the Digiconomist, has revealed that Bitcoin miners use an average of 24 terawatt-hours of electricity annually in an attempt to mine a single Bitcoin. This usage is more than the total annual power usage of Nigeria, which has a population of over 186 million people.
In addition, the estimates confirmed that Bitcoin miners use 215 kilowatt-hours for a single Bitcoin transaction. Overall, there are about 300,000 Bitcoin transactions conducted daily, worldwide. Considering that the average American household uses 901 KWh in a month, Bitcoin uses about the same amount of power per transaction as the average American family does in a week. In broader terms, the collective community of Bitcoin miners uses so much electricity that it could provide power to over 2.26 American households at any given time.
Over the past two years, Bitcoin's power usage has grown significantly. One reason for this is partly because Bitcoin's price is directly proportional to the number of power miners needed to profitably mine the cryptocurrency. This means that the higher the price, the more computing processing power is required to mine it. While it is impossible to give an exact number of how much electricity miners require, it is possible to make an estimation based on several factors and assumptions.
If one assumes that the average miner is running top-of-the-line hardware at optimum efficiency and with no loss whatsoever, this would equate to an overall mining draw of little over 1 GWh. This means that a single Bitcoin transaction requires, at minimum, 77 KWh of electricity. According to the Dutch economist from ING Bank, Teunis Brosens, this amount of energy is enough to power his home in the Netherlands for a fortnight.
However, the above estimates are almost realistically hopeful, compared to the Digicomonist’s more dire statistics. According to his estimates, the average electricity required per Bitcoin transaction is closer to 215 KWh. This is enough power to charge two Tesla batteries, run an average fridge for an entire year, or boil 1,872 liters of water.
While it is possible that the Digiconomist’s estimates are wrong, the sheer power that cryptocurrency requires pose alarming threats to the issue of carbon emissions and climate change. Based on research from a Bitcoin mine in Mongolia that is powered by coal, De Vries found that this single mine accounts for 8,000 to 13,000 CO2 emissions per Bitcoin, and 24,000 to 40,000 kg of CO2 per hour. According to Matthias Bartosik via Twitter, the average European car accounts for around 0.1181 kg of CO2 per kilometer. This means that the Mongolian mine's carbon emissions are the equivalent of 203,000 kilometers traveled by car.
When the Digiconomist was asked whether there is a way for Bitcoin to address this issues, he answered by stating that blockchain technology was designed to be inherently inefficient. Since blockchain technology was designed to be self-reliant, it takes huge amounts of power to operate.
There is an inherent discrepancy at the heart of Bitcoin. While cryptocurrencies strive to be a decentralized economic system that is entirely independent, it also creates inefficient barriers to the average person who is willing to participate. Certain members of the Bitcoin community have proposed improvements to address this issue, such as the Bitcoin Gold and Segwit2x forks. Still, there is no denying that bitcoin remains infinitely less efficient than, for example, credit card payments.
Considering that humanity is currently facing one of the most severe climate change periods in recent history, it is perhaps worth reviewing whether or not cryptocurrency’s mass carbon emission footprint is worth it.
New statistics from the prominent cryptocurrency analyst, Alex de Vries, or otherwise known as the Digiconomist, has revealed that Bitcoin miners use an average of 24 terawatt-hours of electricity annually in an attempt to mine a single Bitcoin. This usage is more than the total annual power usage of Nigeria, which has a population of over 186 million people.
In addition, the estimates confirmed that Bitcoin miners use 215 kilowatt-hours for a single Bitcoin transaction. Overall, there are about 300,000 Bitcoin transactions conducted daily, worldwide. Considering that the average American household uses 901 KWh in a month, Bitcoin uses about the same amount of power per transaction as the average American family does in a week. In broader terms, the collective community of Bitcoin miners uses so much electricity that it could provide power to over 2.26 American households at any given time.
Over the past two years, Bitcoin's power usage has grown significantly. One reason for this is partly because Bitcoin's price is directly proportional to the number of power miners needed to profitably mine the cryptocurrency. This means that the higher the price, the more computing processing power is required to mine it. While it is impossible to give an exact number of how much electricity miners require, it is possible to make an estimation based on several factors and assumptions.
If one assumes that the average miner is running top-of-the-line hardware at optimum efficiency and with no loss whatsoever, this would equate to an overall mining draw of little over 1 GWh. This means that a single Bitcoin transaction requires, at minimum, 77 KWh of electricity. According to the Dutch economist from ING Bank, Teunis Brosens, this amount of energy is enough to power his home in the Netherlands for a fortnight.
However, the above estimates are almost realistically hopeful, compared to the Digicomonist’s more dire statistics. According to his estimates, the average electricity required per Bitcoin transaction is closer to 215 KWh. This is enough power to charge two Tesla batteries, run an average fridge for an entire year, or boil 1,872 liters of water.
While it is possible that the Digiconomist’s estimates are wrong, the sheer power that cryptocurrency requires pose alarming threats to the issue of carbon emissions and climate change. Based on research from a Bitcoin mine in Mongolia that is powered by coal, De Vries found that this single mine accounts for 8,000 to 13,000 CO2 emissions per Bitcoin, and 24,000 to 40,000 kg of CO2 per hour. According to Matthias Bartosik via Twitter, the average European car accounts for around 0.1181 kg of CO2 per kilometer. This means that the Mongolian mine's carbon emissions are the equivalent of 203,000 kilometers traveled by car.
When the Digiconomist was asked whether there is a way for Bitcoin to address this issues, he answered by stating that blockchain technology was designed to be inherently inefficient. Since blockchain technology was designed to be self-reliant, it takes huge amounts of power to operate.
There is an inherent discrepancy at the heart of Bitcoin. While cryptocurrencies strive to be a decentralized economic system that is entirely independent, it also creates inefficient barriers to the average person who is willing to participate. Certain members of the Bitcoin community have proposed improvements to address this issue, such as the Bitcoin Gold and Segwit2x forks. Still, there is no denying that bitcoin remains infinitely less efficient than, for example, credit card payments.
Considering that humanity is currently facing one of the most severe climate change periods in recent history, it is perhaps worth reviewing whether or not cryptocurrency’s mass carbon emission footprint is worth it.