Why bitcoin uses 10 times more electricity than Google
The bitcoin market now exceeds $1 trillion with its price rising tenfold in a year, but focus is shifting towards the massive power requirements needed to sustain the online currency.
Here are some questions and answers about bitcoin:
Total energy consumed by the bitcoin mining process could reach 128 TWh (terawatt-hours) this year, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), which is compiled by Cambridge University researchers.
That is 0.6 per cent of the world’s total electricity production, or more than the entire consumption of Norway.
“These numbers can appear large when compared to medium-sized countries or emerging technologies like electric vehicles (80 TWh in 2019), but small when compared to other end-uses,” such as air conditioning and fans, said International Energy Agency analyst George Kamiya.
