It seems Bitcoin Mining will be our (energy) ENDING!
I was just reading this great article of how Bitcoin Mining is using more energy than 159 COUNTRIES (including Ireland and most of Africa)!
Here's their graphic:
A couple of highlights of the piece that got me thinking:
According to Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, as of Monday November 20th, 2017 Bitcoin’s current estimated annual electricity consumption stands at 29.05TWh.
That’s the equivalent of 0.13% of total global electricity consumption. While that may not sound like a lot, it means Bitcoin mining is now using more electricity than 159 individual countries (as you can see from the map above). More than Ireland or Nigeria.
That's a lot of energy on only one activity!
Also this list:
- In the past month alone, Bitcoin mining electricity consumption is estimated to have increased by 29.98%
- If it keeps increasing at this rate, Bitcoin mining will consume all the world’s electricity by February 2020.
- Estimated annualised global mining revenues: $7.2 billion USD (£5.4 billion)
- Estimated global mining costs: $1.5 billion USD (£1.1 billion)
- Number of Americans who could be powered by bitcoin mining: 2.4 million (more than the population of Houston)
- Number of Britons who could be powered by bitcoin mining: 6.1 million (more than the population of Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Bradford, Liverpool, Bristol, Croydon, Coventry, Leicester & Nottingham combined)
- Bitcoin Mining consumes more electricity than 12 US states (Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming)
MIND.BLOWN.BOOM!
This got me thinking on a couple of things:
- How China has been investing in clean energy really fast.
- How will bitcoin (and the blockchain) be sustainable.
- How other cryptocurrencies/technologies, like IOTA/Tangle Network, can be used.
- How the lightning network will need to happen ASAP to Bitcoin to became mainstream.
I highly recommend checking the article out, as it it's worth it just by their comparison list on the energy use of mining against countries (Bitcoin Mining uses 116.20% of the energy used in Ireland alone!)
Cheers,