While Bitcoin continues to be under severe criticism for uneven price variations, boosting the ecosystem of illegal transactions, and thefts from exchanges, it is now facing backlash for the immense amount of energy it takes for the currency to survive and thrive.
The claim above is backed by results of an online tool that The University of Cambridge has used to draw estimates regarding the level of electricity the crypto-currency network uses and the team also compared the figures with other countries.
According to the report, Bitcoin uses around 143 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per year, which stands more than many of the countries around the world and also 0.65 percent of the total worldwide electricity consumption as well. Besides that, a comparison done by Visual Capitalist has also proven that Bitcoin consumes more power than the world's largest technology companies too.
Bitcoin stands above Norway that consumes 124 TWh of electricity and also Switzerland which stands at 56 TWh of consumption every year. Moreover, if Bitcoin was ever to be a country then it would have been 27th on the list of most energy-demanding nations on earth.
If by now you have no idea about why Bitcoins consume so much energy, then it is because of the computing power needed for mining and to continue the process which involves machines being connected with networks to verify transactions and yes it is also a lot like puzzle-solving.
The need for it has gone so wild that there are some Bitcoin miners who decided to relocate to places like Iceland in order to save energy costs as such places have geothermal energy in abundance and the cold Arctic air can also help the machine with cooling.
Found the stats surprising? We did too!
H/T: Statista.
Read next: With millions of people trying to seek more privacy and less annoyance on mobile devices, the use of Ad blocking tools is growing
The claim above is backed by results of an online tool that The University of Cambridge has used to draw estimates regarding the level of electricity the crypto-currency network uses and the team also compared the figures with other countries.
According to the report, Bitcoin uses around 143 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per year, which stands more than many of the countries around the world and also 0.65 percent of the total worldwide electricity consumption as well. Besides that, a comparison done by Visual Capitalist has also proven that Bitcoin consumes more power than the world's largest technology companies too.
Bitcoin stands above Norway that consumes 124 TWh of electricity and also Switzerland which stands at 56 TWh of consumption every year. Moreover, if Bitcoin was ever to be a country then it would have been 27th on the list of most energy-demanding nations on earth.
If by now you have no idea about why Bitcoins consume so much energy, then it is because of the computing power needed for mining and to continue the process which involves machines being connected with networks to verify transactions and yes it is also a lot like puzzle-solving.
The need for it has gone so wild that there are some Bitcoin miners who decided to relocate to places like Iceland in order to save energy costs as such places have geothermal energy in abundance and the cold Arctic air can also help the machine with cooling.
Found the stats surprising? We did too!
Read next: With millions of people trying to seek more privacy and less annoyance on mobile devices, the use of Ad blocking tools is growing
