Bitcoin to use 0.5% of world’s electricity by end of 2018

[coinminerdotcom]

The estimates, based in economics, put the minimum current usage of the bitcoin network at 2.55 gigawatts, which means it uses almost as much electricity as Ireland. A single transaction uses as much electricity as an average household in the Netherlands uses in a month. By the end of this year, he predicts the network could be using as much as 7.7 gigawatts—as much as Austria and 0.5% of the world’s total consumption.

https://www.livemint.com/Money/3wU3b1IuMYZTl47zYkkcmN/Bitcoin-to-use-05-of-worlds-electricity-by-end-of-2018.html

With mining facilities looking to be more and more electrically efficient with the coming years, I feel they will be pushing our electrical technology to tiers that will help us on a global scale.

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[freesia_pnp888]

the mining is getting busier as there's only 4mil coins left, right?

[HabBear]

With mining facilities looking to be more and more electrically efficient with the coming years, I feel they will be pushing our electrical technology to tiers that will help us on a global scale.

I don't think mining facilities are necessarily striving for power usage efficiency, but they're certainly trying to find power cost efficiency. There's a very big difference between the two. Mining operations need the electricity, they don't care how much they're using to keep their mining machines going, they just want it to be low cost. And finding renewable energy sources isn't always available or cost effective.

It would be great if some of these mining operations sought to improve energy usage efficiency because those trial-and-error learnings could benefit the entire world.

the mining is getting busier as there's only 4mil coins left, right?

Mining is getting busier because Bitcoin is at $8,000 each. It's the revenue that can be earned that's driving the work. It'll take more than 100 years to mine the remaining 4 million coins.

[eternalgloom]

I'd actually be more interested in seeing how big of a part green energy is of those statistics...
I'd imagine it could be a lot cheaper to generate your own power with either solar or wind, especially for large-scale mining operations.

What's the problem with Bitcoin mining taking up so much power? Would this be an issue if the missing capacity was filled with additional renewable energy?

I really think that in some point in the future, we're really not going to be worrying about power anymore. Once we transition to highly efficient and environmentally-friendly renewables, power consumption might not even be an issue anymore. We're still pretty far off from that, but I do think we'll get there eventually. (If we don't destroy our planet first)

[wiser]

This is one of the major reasons I'm almost certain Bitcoin will eventually be replaced as the cryptocurrency of choice for most people who are into cryptocurrencies.

There are already coins out there that do far better what Bitcoin does, and also do more cool things that Bitcoin can't do right now, and they use far less electricity to do it.

Bitcoin is enjoying first mover advantage now but it won't last forever.

[amishmanish]

This is one of the major reasons I'm almost certain Bitcoin will eventually be replaced as the cryptocurrency of choice for most people who are into cryptocurrencies.

There are already coins out there that do far better what Bitcoin does, and also do more cool things that Bitcoin can't do right now, and they use far less electricity to do it.

Bitcoin is enjoying first mover advantage now but it won't last forever.

For this to become a big enough issue, you'd need crypto adoption to a level where enough people will actually begin to worry about the electricity usagee. Right now, except those trying to peddle their DPoS or PoS systems, nobody is worried about how much electricity the basic security feature of bitcoin uses.

The market is mostly concerned about the next levels of adoption. None of the so called alternatives have been tested or attacked enough to merit the kind of investments that have gone into bitcoin. The big investors and regulators know this. If these alt-coins gain enough adoption and value, they will be attacked and the truth will be out in the open.

If the energy consumption becomes a major issue, the miner community will definitely find a way to address it rather than letting bitcoin lose value. The chances of another currency becoming strong enough AND important enough before bitcoin can adapt are terribly low.

[squatz1]

I'd actually be more interested in seeing how big of a part green energy is of those statistics...
I'd imagine it could be a lot cheaper to generate your own power with either solar or wind, especially for large-scale mining operations.

What's the problem with Bitcoin mining taking up so much power? Would this be an issue if the missing capacity was filled with additional renewable energy?

I really think that in some point in the future, we're really not going to be worrying about power anymore. Once we transition to highly efficient and environmentally-friendly renewables, power consumption might not even be an issue anymore. We're still pretty far off from that, but I do think we'll get there eventually. (If we don't destroy our planet first)

I highly doubt it is much, due to the fact that most of the mining happens in cheap areas (such as China) which rely heavily on coal miniing. Which everyone knows that there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, clean at all about coal. So if green energy has even 5 percent of an involvement in all bitcoin then I'd be insanely surprised, but it is still possible.

No one is going to be interested in being efficient when being efficient is going to cost more than not caring at all. It's sad, but people do only care about their bottom line at the end of the day. That's just how the world works. We'll see what the future holds for green energy.

[19nataliya12]

If the rapid growth of the network at the end of 2017 continued, bitcoin would use all the world's energy production by 2020. Maybe before that would not have happened, but 5% of the world's electricity, according to Vris, the network could well use in the near future.

[MintDice]

I'd actually be more interested in seeing how big of a part green energy is of those statistics...
I'd imagine it could be a lot cheaper to generate your own power with either solar or wind, especially for large-scale mining operations.

What's the problem with Bitcoin mining taking up so much power? Would this be an issue if the missing capacity was filled with additional renewable energy?

I really think that in some point in the future, we're really not going to be worrying about power anymore. Once we transition to highly efficient and environmentally-friendly renewables, power consumption might not even be an issue anymore. We're still pretty far off from that, but I do think we'll get there eventually. (If we don't destroy our planet first)

I highly doubt it is much, due to the fact that most of the mining happens in cheap areas (such as China) which rely heavily on coal miniing. Which everyone knows that there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, clean at all about coal. So if green energy has even 5 percent of an involvement in all bitcoin then I'd be insanely surprised, but it is still possible.

No one is going to be interested in being efficient when being efficient is going to cost more than not caring at all. It's sad, but people do only care about their bottom line at the end of the day. That's just how the world works. We'll see what the future holds for green energy.

Agreed. You'd think with the emergence of disruptive technology like blockchain there should be an equally as revolutionary or at the very least improvement in regards to the energy powering it. Alas, there is no such bilateral effort. Hopefully this becomes a more serious issue in the eyes of the public and we can begin looking at renawable energy for mining--it makes so much sense in the big picture. We could try using surplus energy from solar and wind sources or even look further into energy-from-waste methods.

[Conasse]

0.5% would be interesting if it was compared to something. If it's to say how bitcoin is a waste of energy, what about the shops that use electricity during the night while shops are closed (for exemple)

[Paractor]

If the rapid growth of the network at the end of 2017 continued, bitcoin would use all the world's energy production by 2020. Maybe before that would not have happened, but 5% of the world's electricity, according to Vris, the network could well use in the near future.

Here in India people are using large solar panels to generate electricity in order to run their miners.  They are mining since years and getting more profit than those using city electricity and paying bills since years. Getting free electricity is important in order to get more profit as more hard its gonna be with time as bitcoin halving happens so the algo to solve.

[jjacob]

With mining facilities looking to be more and more electrically efficient with the coming years, I feel they will be pushing our electrical technology to tiers that will help us on a global scale.

Electrical efficiency would not immediately result in a decrease in electricity consumption. What matters is the cost of electricity and the price of Bitcoin. If electricity is cheap, miners will add more capacity. It doesn’t matter if the mining operations are efficient.

[stompix]

I'd actually be more interested in seeing how big of a part green energy is of those statistics...
I'd imagine it could be a lot cheaper to generate your own power with either solar or wind, especially for large-scale mining operations.

Without government subsidies, green energy is not cheaper and Germany has paid triple for it's fancy turbines and panels till now.

What's the problem with Bitcoin mining taking up so much power? Would this be an issue if the missing capacity was filled with additional renewable energy?

It's not as simple as that.
Let's assume we use 1 Gwh out of coal and 1 Gwh out of solar.
Now adding another 1 Ghw of wind would led us to shut down the coal power plant...but..since we have another energy hungry industry that came out of nowhere and eating another Gwh, we will still have to keep the coal burning.

The good news, the problem is easy to fix.
The bad news is that it involves bitcoin going below 100$  
The VERY good news is that the "analyst" with his claim that the network will consume 3x more power by the end of 2018 is estimating a price increase of 3x also .

[mindrust]

This is one of the major reasons I'm almost certain Bitcoin will eventually be replaced as the cryptocurrency of choice for most people who are into cryptocurrencies.

There are already coins out there that do far better what Bitcoin does, and also do more cool things that Bitcoin can't do right now, and they use far less electricity to do it.

Bitcoin is enjoying first mover advantage now but it won't last forever.

For this to become a big enough issue, you'd need crypto adoption to a level where enough people will actually begin to worry about the electricity usagee. Right now, except those trying to peddle their DPoS or PoS systems, nobody is worried about how much electricity the basic security feature of bitcoin uses.

PoS is not better than PoW. While I agree these electricity usages are ridiculous I also believe that there simply isn't a better solution than PoW to secure the network.

There are coins like BURST however which do HDD mining with little to none electric usage. If we are going to make a change, the answer shouldn't be PoS, it should be an environment friendly PoW.

[AngelSky]

Crypto mining is occupy the more electricity but some countries are supporting mining platform because many miners are fixing the solar panels it will make some electricity so government also supporting in mining platform. But I don't believe this word number of coins are available in the Crypto market but you should mention Bitcoin is occupy 0.5% of world's electricity.

[drmilind2004]

This will provide one more pretext for global regulatory bodies to put the brakes on Bitcoin.  Nothing beats a 'clean n green' halo around one's head when they use this as a flogging stick to beat Bitcoin with.

On the other hand, even in terms of the Cryptocurrency world's own internal dynamics, this makes other coins more attractive vis-a-vis Bitcoin. All that they need is the luck of Bitcoin to proliferate wildly.

[dothebeats]

the mining is getting busier as there's only 4mil coins left, right?

Yes, and because of the price, its difficulty is also soaring up, so you can also add that one in terms of why most miners are 'busy' at this point in time.

I'd actually be more interested in seeing how big of a part green energy is of those statistics...
I'd imagine it could be a lot cheaper to generate your own power with either solar or wind, especially for large-scale mining operations.

It would be cheaper on paper and in the long run, though at first you need to spend a huge amount of money to get those turbines, panels and whatnot installed and maintained before you go fully green on mining power. Also, most electric companies offer a special contract on mining farms I think, that's why most are still staying on regular power.

I really think that in some point in the future, we're really not going to be worrying about power anymore. Once we transition to highly efficient and environmentally-friendly renewables, power consumption might not even be an issue anymore. We're still pretty far off from that, but I do think we'll get there eventually. (If we don't destroy our planet first)

Well, there are already a huge number of prominent people advocating towards greener energy. It's just that most governments can't do shit since they rely heavily on oil and most oil companies would do anything just to stay prominent and be profitable, so yeah, no major advancements for renewables except for a few countries.

[yoseph]

the mining is getting busier as there's only 4mil coins left, right?

It's amazing how many people are now getting into mining now that the the difficulty rate is getting harder and harder each day. This has without doubt caused a lot of power being used on a global scale.

[Stonetium]

Proof-of-Work electricity is the cost of decentralized currency. Inflation is the cost of centralized currency. Which is cheaper? via https://twitter.com/naval/status/996120405868994560

[franky1]

network hashrate recent minimum was 28 exahash = 2mill s9 ant miners at 14terrahash

now the top GPU does 1mhash so would need 14000 gpu to do 1 asics job. yet an asic only uses the electricity of a few gpu's, thus is more energy efficient than the past.

imagine how things would be if this was still a GPU hashing era, but with todays difficulty

28billion GPU's would use ALOT more electric

..
i wont even get into the details of the electric needed if we were in the CPU mining scenario at todays difficulty. as that electricity requirement would be soo much more.