Total Global Combined Electricity Cost of Bitcoin?

[mc_lovin]

I've been wondering this for awhile.

How much electricity is bitcoin using on a global scale (combining all miners' electricity)? 

Some would be a lot more efficient than others, so no one could accurately tell you this figure...  But does anyone have a guesstimation of how much watts is currently hashing away?  My guess: a nuclear power plant.

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[bitrebel]

It doesn't really matter, because our grandchildren will inherit the electric debt as well as the bitcoin wealth.

[mc_lovin]

It doesn't really matter, because our grandchildren will inherit the electric debt as well as the bitcoin wealth.

True.  They get our debt, but I was more thinking about the debt to Earth's ecosystem.  If the bitcoin difficulty rises, think about how many jiggawatts are being added to the system and how much stress there is on our planet.  Plus, if bitcoin is going to be releasing new coins until the year 2033, we are probably going to have a zillion plug-in hybrids or full-EV cars on the road.  Personally, I hope I own a flying car in the year 2033. 

Maaaaybe in the future, video cards will become more efficient, but still.  I just hate to waste electricity.  I have probably 2kw running 24/7 and I know a lot of other people do, too.

[bitrebel]

It doesn't really matter, because our grandchildren will inherit the electric debt as well as the bitcoin wealth.

True.  They get our debt, but I was more thinking about the debt to Earth's ecosystem.  If the bitcoin difficulty rises, think about how many jiggawatts are being added to the system and how much stress there is on our planet.  Plus, if bitcoin is going to be releasing new coins until the year 2033, we are probably going to have a zillion plug-in hybrids or full-EV cars on the road.  Personally, I hope I own a flying car in the year 2033. 

Maaaaybe in the future, video cards will become more efficient, but still.  I just hate to waste electricity.  I have probably 2kw running 24/7 and I know a lot of other people do, too.

I feel for all the naive people on this planet. But a part of me wants to laugh at their ignorance, too.

My friend, energy is not limited. We are not destroying the planet with our energy consumption and there is no such thing as made made global warming. If you truly believe that, I have an Easter Bunny that was born as a direct descendant from 36 generations of successive Easter Bunnies going back to the Grand Pubah Easter Bunny himself of 1453. This is Easter Bunny Royalty! This a a real cute bugger. I only want 50 bitcoins for him. PM me, okay?

[gellimac]

I've been wondering this for awhile.

How much electricity is bitcoin using on a global scale (combining all miners' electricity)? 

Some would be a lot more efficient than others, so no one could accurately tell you this figure...  But does anyone have a guesstimation of how much watts is currently hashing away?  My guess: a nuclear power plant.

Arround 10 000 000 kWh (under-estimated)

[mc_lovin]

It doesn't really matter, because our grandchildren will inherit the electric debt as well as the bitcoin wealth.

True.  They get our debt, but I was more thinking about the debt to Earth's ecosystem.  If the bitcoin difficulty rises, think about how many jiggawatts are being added to the system and how much stress there is on our planet.  Plus, if bitcoin is going to be releasing new coins until the year 2033, we are probably going to have a zillion plug-in hybrids or full-EV cars on the road.  Personally, I hope I own a flying car in the year 2033. 

Maaaaybe in the future, video cards will become more efficient, but still.  I just hate to waste electricity.  I have probably 2kw running 24/7 and I know a lot of other people do, too.

I feel for all the naive people on this planet. But a part of me wants to laugh at their ignorance, too.

My friend, energy is not limited. We are not destroying the planet with our energy consumption and there is no such thing as made made global warming. If you truly believe that, I have an Easter Bunny that was born as a direct descendant from 36 generations of successive Easter Bunnies going back to the Grand Pubah Easter Bunny himself of 1453. This is Easter Bunny Royalty! This a a real cute bugger. I only want 50 bitcoins for him. PM me, okay?

cheque's in teh mail

[Gabi]

My guess: a nuclear power plant.

There are like 40.000GPUs hashing right now. A nuclear power plant is a bit too much imho for them... 

[bitrebel]

It doesn't really matter, because our grandchildren will inherit the electric debt as well as the bitcoin wealth.

True.  They get our debt, but I was more thinking about the debt to Earth's ecosystem.  If the bitcoin difficulty rises, think about how many jiggawatts are being added to the system and how much stress there is on our planet.  Plus, if bitcoin is going to be releasing new coins until the year 2033, we are probably going to have a zillion plug-in hybrids or full-EV cars on the road.  Personally, I hope I own a flying car in the year 2033.  

Maaaaybe in the future, video cards will become more efficient, but still.  I just hate to waste electricity.  I have probably 2kw running 24/7 and I know a lot of other people do, too.

I feel for all the naive people on this planet. But a part of me wants to laugh at their ignorance, too.

My friend, energy is not limited. We are not destroying the planet with our energy consumption and there is no such thing as made made global warming. If you truly believe that, I have an Easter Bunny that was born as a direct descendant from 36 generations of successive Easter Bunnies going back to the Grand Pubah Easter Bunny himself of 1453. This is Easter Bunny Royalty! This a a real cute bugger. I only want 50 bitcoins for him. PM me, okay?

cheque's in teh mail

Okay, i'll be a little more serious.
Nikola Tesla discovered around 1900 or so, that the Earth, spinning in motion, creates an electrical field, and this is what causes lightning. This electrical field also contains potential energy we call electricity. This electricity was harnessed by Tesla by placing large coils that tapped into the earth's electrical fields, in the ground. With this, he lit the world's fair in NYC I think, it was in 1922, completely Free. With this newly discovered form of electricity, called "Free Energy". But since his main financier, J.P. Morgan could not place a switch on this new form of electricity, mainly, because it was , FREE, J.P. Morgan cut the funding for Tesla's new electricity and here we are today, using Rockefeller's oil petrol byproduct, GASOLINE, which is actually oil refining WASTE, when we could be using Alcohol Gas or even better, Tesla's Free Electricity.

Now as far as the Global Warming is concerned, the evidence shows that the Earth is warming in temperatures equal to the rise in temperature of distant planets, which means the Sun is warming up, in some periods, causing the other planets to warm equally. It's not due to our human waste and ignorance that Venus and Mars are heating up as well as the Earth, and even Jupiter and Saturn and Pluto and Neptune. We are not that powerful no matter how much we throw away or spill, or burn. lol

That's just the facts. I worked with environmental groups, political action groups and hardcore political groups, i'm not just talking shit. Just take time to check it out for yourself, instead of believing the propaganda. Imagine everything you know is a lie and start from there, my friend. Good Luck.

[Enky1974]

I think we are around 1600-1800 bitcoins spent in electricity every day for mining or ~10 MegaWatt/hour for 15 terahash of network speed.

[bitrebel]

I think we are around 1600-1800 bitcoins spent in electricity every day for mining or ~10 MegaWatt/hour for 15 terahash of network speed.

That is relative to cost of electricity. some people pay 1/3 that others do. Business rates.
Did you figure that in?

[Gabi]

Oh not the "free energy" bullshit PLEASE

[gellimac]

My guess: a nuclear power plant.

There are like 40.000GPUs hashing right now. A nuclear power plant is a bit too much imho for them... 

No, we use more than 10 000 000kWh and a nuclear power plant make 33 600 MWh for the best one so we take 1/3 of a nuclear installation

[Sukrim]

I HIGHLY doubt that 10 Gigawatts are used for ~15 TH/s - this would mean that 1 MH/s uses 666.6...W I guess even CPUs can beat that, hm?

[Enky1974]

I considered 38000 video card such as ATI 5870, 400 mh for 250 watt
38000 x 400 = 15 TH/sec
38000 X 250watt = 9,500,000 = 9.5 MW/hour or 1/100th of a nuclear reactor and not 1/3:)

[Hawkix]

Just note: MW/hour is nonsense. Power is in Watts, total energy consumed in Watts*hours (or Joules).

If the network has 10 MW now, each block, on average, consumes 1.66 MWh to be mined. So, if there are, for example 100 transactions in single block, each transaction (moving 1 BTC from your wallet to another) needs about 16 kWh!

So, to transfer a single transaction, about 3 kg of quality black coal must be burned.

[Sukrim]

And also, even with very cheap prices, 1 transaction should have a fee of at least 1 USD to sustain the current hashing rate!

[gellimac]

Yes I made an error the network use 10 MW and not MHh and indeed it is arrouund 1/100 of a nuclear plant

[ttk2]

I've been wondering this for awhile.

How much electricity is bitcoin using on a global scale (combining all miners' electricity)? 

Some would be a lot more efficient than others, so no one could accurately tell you this figure...  But does anyone have a guesstimation of how much watts is currently hashing away?  My guess: a nuclear power plant.

I can guarantee you that Bitcoin uses less power, and has less of an impact on the environment than all the money factories, trading companies (Paypal), and central banks it would make obsolete. If Bitcoin was the words currency it would be significantly greener than the current way money is handled.

[cypherdoc]

It doesn't really matter, because our grandchildren will inherit the electric debt as well as the bitcoin wealth.

True.  They get our debt, but I was more thinking about the debt to Earth's ecosystem.  If the bitcoin difficulty rises, think about how many jiggawatts are being added to the system and how much stress there is on our planet.  Plus, if bitcoin is going to be releasing new coins until the year 2033, we are probably going to have a zillion plug-in hybrids or full-EV cars on the road.  Personally, I hope I own a flying car in the year 2033. 

Maaaaybe in the future, video cards will become more efficient, but still.  I just hate to waste electricity.  I have probably 2kw running 24/7 and I know a lot of other people do, too.

but if btc takes over and rids us of the over bloated banking system, net net, we'll have cutbacks in wasted electricity.

[bitplane]

I'd personally like to see adjustments to Bitcoin that make it the backbone of all future proof-of-work systems, that way we wouldn't have hundreds of competing systems all wasting energy. Not sure how/if this is possible though, or what type of other systems will spring up in future.